Crowdsourcing, a term coined by Jeff Howe in a June 2006 issue of Wired magazine, is a model of labor that has been fully embraced on the Internet over the past couple of years. Crowdsourcing takes tasks traditionally done by a single person or small groups of people, and farms them out to a global workforce. The large-scale committee approach is powerful because it leans on the concept of the “wisdom of crowds” (to a certain extent) which says basically that the more input, the better the output.

The term has become popular with business authors and journalists as shorthand for the trend of leveraging the mass collaboration enabled by Web 2.0 technologies to achieve business goals. However, both the term and its underlying business models have attracted controversy and criticism.

Here is a look at some of the tools used to help you crowdsource.

Link to [ ReadWriteWeb on Crowdsourcing ]

NetSquared - the annual conference dedicated to remixing the commercial web for social change - is approaching on May 27 and 28 in San Jose, CA.   In the third installment of NetSquared, a mixture of technologist, vendors, early adopters, and volunteers will gather to help amplify non-profit organizations (NPOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The conference will feature 21 community projects showcasing developments using the web for social change.  Some of the projects include:

• Anti-Genocide Action Tracker
• Ask Your Lawmaker: Connecting Local Communities to their Lawmakers
• My Green Map: Sharing your Sustainable Worldview
• OpenCongress.org: Track Congress with Social Data
• Rosetta Project: Minority Languages in Google Earth

The annual conference is coupled with an online community and monthly NetTuesday meetings in cities across the world.  Discover if your area already has a NetTuesday meetup group here.

Link to [NetSquared]