In the past we had to gather physically to create crowds. Now with technology, crowds can be well-connected while being geographically distant. A savvy organisation can tap a wider range of talent and knowledge than that present within its own resources.
We can consider the creative agency and client environment. For clients, solutions to problems can be explored at a relatively low-cost and often very quickly. Unlike traditional creative agency models where an individual is paid per hour, crowdsourcing permits a client to pay a once-off cost for an exponential number of solutions. Ultimately a client only pays for the solutions they make use of, while those in the community who are not paid usually retain their intellectual property (IP).