This article may need to be reworded to conform to a neutral point of view; however, the neutrality of this article is not necessarily disputed.

There is a disputed proposal that this article should be merged with Inverse surveillance

Sousveillance, a recently coined term, French for "to watch from below", has two main facets:

The word surveillance literally means (in French) "to watch from above" (i.e. a God's-eye view looking down from on-high).

The word sousveillance thus has two main interpretations in the published literature: (1) an inverse to surveillance (reverse hierarchy); and (2) a bringing of the cameras from the heavens down-to-earth, i.e. from the lamp posts and buildings down to a human-eye-level.

1. Hierarchical sousveillance, also known as inverse surveillance. Examples include citizens photographing police, shoppers photographing shopkeepers, and taxicab passengers photographing cab drivers. Perhaps the most well known example of hierarchical sousveillance is the recording of the Rodney King incident. Surveillance is French for "to watch from above" (eye-in-the-sky), and sousveillance attempts to reverse this God's-eye view.

2. Personal sousveillance refers to the recording of an activity by a participant in the activity. Personal sousveillance need not have a hierarchical or political motive, and might, for example, include the personal lifelong capture of everyday life using an electric seeing aid. By bringing the cameras from the lamp posts and ceilings, down to eye-level (i.e. from the heavens down-to-earth), we move from an architecture-centered frame of reference, to a human-centered (in fact, and eye-centered) frame of reference. Personal sousveillance is also known as cyborglogging (sometimes abbreviated 'glogging) or moblogging.

'Glogging can also be inverse surveillance (e.g. everyday capture includes all hierarchies), including inverse hierarchy, but it needn't necessarily be. For example, lifelong cyborglogs can simply capture precious moments like the birth of a newborn, or baby's first steps, without necessarily involving any hierarchical or political motive, or any attempt to reverse, inverse, or subvert surveillance.

In the words of Britt Blaser, "Copyright holders won't like it, but we will have the right to capture anything we witness." http://www.blaserco.com/blogs/2004/03/26.html .

NYC sousveillance

Dr. Stefanos Pantagis, a New York physician, is largely responsible for bringing the concepts, ideas, and images of sousveillance to New York City. Together with a group of approximately 25 poets, and a visually impaired film maker, the "NYC sousveillance crew " have engaged numerous artists and philosophers in and around New York in an alternative look at security and America's response to terrorism. See also, Sousveillance Blog: Thought and images from Stefanos and the NYC sousveillance crew. http://sousveillance.org