Everyone knows how popular a list is.  Listiki is a website to “find, make, and share lists of things you care about”, as its founders say. People can create any type of list they want, such as “top 10 places to go” or “top 5 things you shouldn’t do on a date”. It’s easy and started from the idea that “organizing things into lists comes extremely naturally to people”.

The UK Government is now working on a new Facebook app to crowdsource solutions for spending cuts. On the 9th of July, the British government announced an official partnership with Facebook, referring to the social networking website as their “primary channel” for communicating with the public. Crowdsourcing through internet is not new for the parliament. About a month ago they launched an official website called Spending Challenge where people could talk about fair cuts, but this site was subject to a “small number of malicious attacks.”

In a bid to shift towards greener living, people have found that crowdsourcing is a good way to collate more data on plant life for the purpose of preservation. Researcher, Rebecca McClain, of the United States Institute for Culture and Ecology maintains that through crowdsourcing, the quest for getting a more comprehensive body of data on plant life would be more cost-effective and time-efficient. With everybody doing their bit to make notes about the plants in their area, there is no doubt that people will be increasingly familiar with herbaceous life, even beyond their borders.

Ever been in the situation where you are in a store, trying an outfit, not knowing whether to buy it or not, and there was no one to ask for advice? There might be a way to get out of this problem, a way named Fashism.com.

In the UK, Take Back Parliament is launching a grassroots campaign to design posters in support of the “Yes” campaign.  They coalition is calling on bloggers & designers to submit their poster designs to a contest they’re currently running.  Submissions can be posted on your blog or emailed to the initiator.  Labour MP Tom Harris – one of the loudest opponents of reform – has produced this poster to get the contest started.

Global information giant Experian is once again looking to the world of rock music and the public to launch their new product freecreditscore.com. Capitalizing on their previous campaign where crowdsourcing played a major role, this latest venture started in May with the announcement of a new band for their commercials.  The talent search has already concluded & voting has narrowed the field down to four leading bands. It is now up to the public to choose their favourite of the four. Whichever act wins will not only be rewarded with a cash prize and a set of Gibson instruments, but will grace the television screens in a series of commercials for Experian’s newest product.

Google has turned to crowdsourcing to find tips and ideas for Google Ventures, its investment capital arm, from Google employees. Google employees have been asked to recommend startups that the company might want to consider investing in. The tipsters will not be given equity in the startups they recommend, but if the investment makes a profit Google has promised to treat the tipster fairly.

If there is anything that social networking sites like YouTube,  Word Press, Twitter, Facebook, and Google Buzz know, it is the power of crowdsourcing for online marketing campaigns. With just a simple touch of a mouse, you can send strong marketing messages in real-time. You don’t have to be a major celebrity to tap into this market. You just have to know how to navigate the free networking services.

The world renowned Chiquita Banana, who has been a part of everyone’s life, is in the midst of crowdsourcing their significant trademark in the banana industry.  Chiquita recently launched a contest to redesign the blue sticker that appears on the outside of every banana.  Although no more submissions are being accepted, the stickers can be viewed and voted on.  The top 50 stickers will be announced at EatAChiquita.com™ on August 23rd.  From this batch, 18 winners will be selected.

The United States Postal Service in Hawaii has selected the online community of designers at Prova to crowdsource the design of a “Season’s Greetings from Hawaii” logo to be printed on the Hawaii Priority Mail Large Flat Rate Boxes. A new design contest via Prova’s online platform was created to satisfy the Post Office’s marketing, branding, and advertising needs.  Open to the public & USPS employees, this contest was created to update a holiday image that appears on all boxes shipped from Hawaii.