The Next American City magazine published an article about the latest efforts of the cities to use crowdsourcing strategies to enlist the help, knowledge and time of their citizens.
These efforts are examples of projects that would likely be too large and expensive for city staff to complete and maintain on their own. But through involving the participation of citizens over time, it’ s hoped that a relatively accurate (and most importantly, public) database of local resources can be compiled.
Source
Next American City – Crowdsourcing Public Data