Crowdsourcing legal data: are we all e-discovery agents now?

http://ow.ly/86t9n

An article appearing on the New Legal Review on the cpaglobal.com website.

This article discusses the concept of "crowdsourcing", which is essentially the act of a group of individuals providing content via electronic means about a specific topic.

The article states, " ‘Crowdsourcing’ is a term coined in 2006 by technology expert Jeff Howe, who became interested in how companies were engaging customers in key corporate functions, such as marketing."

The article provides examples of how "crowdsourcing" has provided useful information in support of a legal position during a specific litigation.  Examples include defense of persons that wrote articles critical of services, (such as chiropractic care), or in support of claims that two companies (restaurants) names were similar enough to be causing confusion among consumers.

In addition, information regarding the UK riots was also helpful in prosecuting individuals for their criminal actions.

The article further states, "...crowdsourcing has had a positive impact on the world of intellectual property (IP) through the Peer to Patent initiatives in the US and UK. These enable technical experts of all types to sign up and provide their insights on select patent applications. But this year, web-based crowds have also played major roles in the gathering of raw evidence..."