Many of us will be familiar with the established concept of outsourcing, defined as 'an arrangement in which work is done by people from outside your company …'. This definition might fit an instance of crowdsourcing too, but the essential difference is that, whereas outsourcing usually involves a specific, previously known person or organization (often an expert in a particular field) crowdsourcing refers to a task or problem thrown open to an undefined public (the crowd) – quite literally any Tom, Dick, or Harry who could possibly provide the answer.

我们很多人都已经对“外包”这个概念比较熟悉，它的意思是“安排本公司以外的人来完成某项工作”。这个概念在一些特定场合下也适用于crowdsourcing（众包），不过二者本质的区别在于，外包一般是由某个指定的、之前已经熟识的人或者组织（通常是某个领域的专家）来完成，而众包则是将某个任务或问题抛给未知的大众——可以是张三、李四，或任何一个可能贡献答案或解决方法的人。

Fast establishing itself as a legitimate business tool, the perceived benefits of crowdsourcing are obvious – problems can be explored quickly and at comparatively low cost, and businesses can tap a range of talent that may not exist within the confines of a particular organization. It's also useful for marketing purposes because the crowd may include potential customers – asking people for their response to a problem may also be a way to glean information about what they want from a product or service.

在迅速成长为一项合法运营工具的同时，众包的优势也是显而易见的——问题解决得更快，而且花费相对较低，企业可以开发出各种各样的人才，而这些人才是不可能在某个公司同时存在的。同时，众包对市场营销也有帮助，因为这里的“众”可能就包括潜在的客户——向人们征询针对某个问题的看法也可能是在征集有关他们对产品或服务的需求信息。

Crowdsourcing is therefore catching on in a variety of contexts. The popular social networking site Facebook, for example, has enhanced its global popularity by crowdsourcing the translation of its many web pages. The ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry's recently launched a "Do the world a flavor" campaign, in an attempt to crowdsource inspiration for new varieties. Even President Obama has become an advocate of crowdsourcing, using it for example to source campaign funding prior to his election, and more recently to canvas opinion and galvanize constructive ideas from the public in a web-based enterprise catchily described as White House 2.0. (Source: macmillandictionary.com)

于是，众包在各个领域风生水起。比如，广受欢迎的社交网站Facebook通过将其很多网页的翻译任务众包而提高了在全球的知名度。冰激凌厂商Ben & Jerry's近期还推出了一个“给世界加点味儿”活动，希望通过这样的众包方式激发出新的冰激凌品种。连美国总统奥巴马都是众包的倡导者，比如，他在大选前向公众征集竞选经费，最近又通过一个网络公司向公众征集意见和建设性想法，这个公司有个很吸引人的名字，叫“白宫2.0”。