Every field has its buzzwords. You know, words that are used so often to mean so many different things that their meaning starts to erode. At Journalism Lives, we've made restoring their meaning part of our mission. We blogged previously on "digital first" and "interactivity." Today we examine "crowdsourcing."

So, what is crowdsourcing? We'll let participants from the Oct. 6 #wjchat both show and tell you.

@henrymlopez: Commenting is crowd sourcing, if for nothing more than a diversity of opinion. So are scientific polls. #wjchat

@zachbehrens: Q1. Crowdsourcing is using the people as a news wire (you should still fact check, though). #wjchat

@ryanjz crowdsourcing is essentially putting a concept out there and soliciting data from the world at-large i.e. open-source journalism. #wjchat

@kimbui Q1: Crowdsourcing, using the wisdom of the crowd to enhance your reporting and your story presentation. #wjchat

@jeffsondermanCH: “Crowdsourcing” is used to describe many different things. From asking an open question to gathering scientific samples #wjchat

No definition is necessarily right or wrong or even better or worse. Some speak to specific applications while others try to be all-encompassing. Below I seek to organize the varying applications into what I'm calling crowdsourcing archetypes. But first, the broader definition.

Targeted, functional

Like some of the chat participants said, crowdsourcing can be very simple and traditional. @henrymlopez's observation that comments and polls are crowdsourcing, if only to obtain a diversity of opinion, is an insightful point.

At its heart, though, and what differentiates crowdsourcing from user-generated content at large, is its utility. It is targeted enough and involves enough people that it can solve important problems that would be impossible or prohibitively difficult for one person or group to solve on its own.

A recent Slate piece, mentioned in the #wjchat,  on crowdsourcing medical advice, says Wired editors invented the term in 2006 to mean just that. "Seeking a problem's solution from a wide community," was how they put it.

Now, on to the types of problems crowdsourcing can solve and news and non-news examples for each.

Needle in a haystack

The more eyes looking at something, the less likely patterns or outliers will slip through the cracks.

News use: The Texas Tribune is a leader in promoting data content and making it accessible. Its efforts attract loads of page views as well as industry praise. The ability of all those eyeballs to uncover story leads was part of the reason the online-only publication made its most popular feature (data or otherwise), a state government payroll app, more user friendly.

Common use: Citizen scientists are fulfilling this archetype when they flag shapes or irregularities in thousands of telescope photos to help astronomers identify and classify galaxies.

Microtasks

The assembly line for the digital revolution. Split up large, tedious or complex projects into simple microtasks anyone can complete.

News use: On its citizen reporting network blog, ProPublica recently explained how it uses Amazon's Mechanical Turk to collect, reformat and de-duplicate data.

Common use: You're applying this function every time you fill out a reCAPTCHA, which in addition to fighting spam, digitizes books.

Wisdom of the crowd

Take advantage of people's collective knowledge and experiences to get more, more creative ideas more quickly or to hone in on the most popular ones. 

News use: Tracking election day snafus with Crowdmap, like TBD did.

Common use: David Pogue's Twitter APB for hiccup cures is a fun example.

Network of networks

Study or enlist crowds to discover relationships. Good old fashioned networking but mapped out for you by the social graph.

News use: Everyday social media sourcing. Let the organizing power of online communities steer you to the person or piece of information you're looking for: Purusing Twitter lists to find like-minded people, for example, or identifying Foursquare mayors to find people who know a place or area well.

Common use: Every time you search for or stumble upon contacts on Facebook you're using crowdsourcing this way.

Crowdsourcing also is…

Before ending this post, and opening things up to the wisdom of the crowd, it's worth noting that crowdsourcing doesn't have to involve humans, doesn't have to involve computers and can involve internal audiences like coworkers as well as users. 

With that said, wise crowd, what would you add to or change about this list?

Creative Commons photo by Flickr user victoriapeckham