• CNet, Friday, October 2, 2009 3:55 PM

Two nascent trends as fast converging -- the rise of the iPhone app, and crowdsourcing, which is defined by Jeff Howe, who wrote the book on the subject, as, "the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call." Popular examples of the convergence are everywhere: Google Maps; Twitter search; public tagging of Library of Congress archival photos; the cover of September's Media magazine; even Wikipedia.

As CNet explains, much of the concept of user-generated content is really about crowdsourcing. What will the future bring? Only time will tell.

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