A long awaited study by the BBC shows where users can get service. 44,600 people volunteered to use Epitiro’s Android connection monitor over three weeks to show where they had a connection and the quality of the service. The data appears similar to the maps of cell phone carriers, though easier to search. However, extensive areas are simply left out of the map.

Crowdsortium, a crowdsourcing industry group, has just announced a contest to give a crowdsourcing start-up the chance to win a Crowdsortium sponsored exhibitor booth at the CrowdConf 2011, which will take place in downtown San Francisco at the Mission Bay Conference Center between the first and the second of November.

In an effort to reward the most exceptional workers in crowdsourcing and the brands they work with, Daily Crowdsource is today kicking off the first of four International Crowdsourcing Excellence Awards. The ICE Awards will showcase the greatest talent within the four main divisions of crowdsourcing – microtasking, macrotasking, crowdfunding, and crowd contests.

CrowdSource, LLC has just announced the hiring of a new Vice President of Sales, Ken Stoddart. Stoddart brings to CrowdSource a wide range of experiences gained while working with companies such as Secure IT, GeoTrust, VeriSign, and Symantec. His expertise has also earned him the President’s Club award for the past several years.

Crowdsourced translation platform Lingotek has recently struck a deal to be the exclusive translator for the genealogy records website, FamilySearch, uniting two influential crowdsourcing communities. This new partnership will allow FamilySearch to expand its database beyond the 9 languages it currently offers as well as help members read records from languages other than their own.

InnoCentive is partnering with the magazine Popular Science to further their efforts of connecting companies to problem solvers and innovators. The new Popular Science Open Innovation Pavilion, which will be hosted on both sites, will connect engineers, architects, tinkerers, and inventors to a diverse set of problems affecting the world. The featured challenge of this partnership offers a $25,000 guaranteed prize pool for innovative middle school science lesson plans.

TopCoder and InnoCentive are hoping that a joint panel focusing on open innovation and crowdsourcing will garner enough community votes to receive an invitation to next year’s South by Southwest Conference and Festival (SXSW). TopCoder founder Jack Hughes and InnoCentive CEO Dwayne Spradlin will both be speaking, while West Coast bureau chief of Popular Science magazine Jacob Ward will be moderating the discussion.

uTest, the crowdsourced software testing marketplace, is now moving into localization and security testing. This makes them the first service that offers complete testing for web, mobile, and desktop software applications. The expansion enables uTest to provide companies with the option to go to a single source for all their testing needs.

CrowdSource, LLC has launched a new service for their Scalable Workforce platform called Worker Profiles. Worker Profiles will allow users of Scalable Workforce to measure their working performance against other members, providing more nuanced feedback and a more competitive environment.

Freelancer.com, the popular online freelance job marketplace, today announced a horizontal expansion into a variety of crowdsourcing design categories. The move brings the crowdsourced design offerings on the Freelancer.com platform up to 18 different categories, including logos, websites, as well as a generic catch-all option.