Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The recording of an activity from the perspective of a participant in the activity.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Coined the term sousveillance to describe the use of lifelogging cameras as a counter to surveillance.

    USC IMD: bjaycox 2008

  • Thus, loosely speaking, sousveillance is watchful vigilance from underneath.

    Smart Mobs » Blog Archive » Sousveillance: Wearable Counter-Surveillance 2002

  • Members of Fit Watch, a protest group opposed to police forward intelligence teams (Fits), the units that monitor demonstrations and meetings, similarly combine political and media activism in their "sousveillance" - the latest buzzword for taking videos and photographs of police activities and then uploading them on to the web.

    Pacific Free Press - Hard Truths for Hard Times - Progressive opinion, dissident news 2010

  • We are heading toward a world in which one-click universal disclosure, real-time reporting by both professionals and amateurs, dazzling data visualizations that tell compelling new stories, and the people's ability to watch their government from below (what the French call sousveillance) are becoming commonplace.

    CJR 2009

  • Bring camcorders, cell phones, and cameras to your polling place for some election "sousveillance" (surveillance from below.)

    RJ Eskow: 100 Million Suspects 2008

  • This is another emerging example of citizen's media in action, and specifically a kind of sousveillance, watching from below (rather than surveillance, watching from above).

    Voter Sousveillance 2004

  • This is another emerging example of citizen's media in action, and specifically a kind of sousveillance, watching from below (rather than surveillance, watching from above).

    Voter Sousveillance 2004

  • Although this is clearly a kind of surveillance - literally, "looking from above" - it is in spirit an act of "sousveillance", or "looking from below": the use of imaging technology and documentation by ordinary citizens to turn the tables on all-seeing governments and powerful institutions.

    Gizmodo 2010

  • David Brin sees two futures: 1) the government watches everybody, and 2) everybody watches everybody (the latter he calls "sousveillance").

    UgoTrade 2009

  • David Brin sees two futures: 1) the government watches everybody, and 2) everybody watches everybody (the latter he calls "sousveillance").

    UgoTrade 2009

Comments

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  • The watching of the watchers by the watched; countersurveillance by people not in positions of power or authority. (Double-Tongued Dictionary)

    May 18, 2008

  • the placement of a hidden camera in the kitchen of restaurants across the world, meant to catch bong hitting sous chef's and their ilk.

    May 25, 2009

  • "The term "sousveillance", coined by Steve Mann, stems from the contrasting French words sur, meaning "above", and sous, meaning "below", i.e. "surveillance" denotes the "eye-in-the-sky" watching from above, whereas "sousveillance" denotes bringing the camera or other means of observation down to human level, either physically (mounting cameras on people rather than on buildings), or hierarchically (ordinary people doing the watching, rather than higher authorities or architectures doing the watching)."

    -- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sousveillance&oldid=788558213

    August 16, 2017