The Crowd

In this age of the Internet a new meaning has been given to the term "crowd". "The Crowd" refers to the mass of people on the Internet, and more specifically to the individuals as a collective when they participate in a given site, online community, or web organized undertaking. 

Crowd Sourcing

Crowd sourcing is the action of being supplied by a participating audience on the Internet. For example, microstock photo sites have photos supplied by a given Internet group of people. Any site that obtains their content thorugh the efforts of a mass of individuals over the net is said to be crowd sourced. Crowd sourcing represents a new paradigm in which a distributor can tap into the Internet audience for a virtually unlimited supply of content at very low or even zero cost. 

Crowd Funding

Crowd funding sites provide opportunities for individuals and companies to raise capital by using an internet audience or community as a funding source.

Crowds, Communities and  Tribes

Other defining terms for online audiences include "tribe", "Community", and "Crowd". A community or tribe consists of a fan base following a given site.