Final answer:
Crowdsourcing is a business model that obtains services, ideas, or content by leveraging a large online community instead of traditional employees or suppliers, as seen in platforms like Kickstarter and Wikipedia. It also plays a significant role in disaster relief by organizing vital data through social media.
Step-by-step explanation:
Crowdsourcing is a business model pattern where an organization leverages the collective intelligence and skills of a large group of people, typically through the web, to achieve business goals, such as obtaining services, ideas, or content. It represents a form of modernization in the way businesses harness human resources, differentiating itself from traditional employment or supplier relationships. An example is Kickstarter, a platform designed to facilitate the raising of funds bypassing conventional financing methods. Another illustration of crowdsourcing is Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia comprised of crowdsourced information from volunteers worldwide.
One of the most impactful applications of crowdsourcing has been in disaster relief. Organizations can utilize social media to collect and categorize urgent needs after a crisis to respond effectively. For instance, after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, more than 2,500 incident reports were crowdsourced to create a crisis map, enabling better coordination for delivering aid.