Today NASA launched a new open innovation challenge to find a solution to maximize the amount of solar energy the International Space Station can harvest. This is the latest in a string of crowdsourcing projects from NASA. The project is being facilitated by TopCoder's open innovation community with a total prize pool of $30,000. The challenge is open to anyone.

When it comes to utilizing the crowd, it's not always for just typing up documents or asking for design ideas. Significant strides have been made towards improving medical science and making the process more efficient and transparent, all thanks to a concerned and connected global community.

If you’re a teacher, been a teacher, know a teacher, or had a teacher, you know they’re the kind of person that gets nothing but gives everything. More often than not, the students in their continually bulging classrooms mean the world to them.

At the University of Texas in Austin, a conventional business plan competition platform has evolved into a venue for students everywhere to improve the world. Based on crowdsourcing principles, the competition platform allows university students from around the world to take their ideas beyond conception & winning competitions to improving lives.

When you're hit with the news that one of your daughters has leukemia, would you go through the typical stages of grief as laid out by Kübler-Ross, or setup a crowdfunding campaign to cover your medical bills? American folk singer-songwriter, Alastair Moock, went an unusual path and setup a GoFundMe page to raise $15,000 - to record an album.

It's no secret Virgin is my favorite company. Everything they touch turns to gold & they seem to have an awesome time doing it. So I've been surprised they haven't taken to crowdsourcing more than the few one-off projects I've seen here & there. Luckily that changed when they launched a design contest on Australian site, DesignCrowd.

Have you ever sung in front of your relatives or friends? If you have, whether you were terrible or not, one of them probably got all excited and with a bright look on their face said: “You should try out for American Idol!!!”... Whether or not you rolled your eyes at this comment or were encouraged, one thing is certain: If you want to try out for American Idol, you no longer have an excuse not to. Your friends can help you by voting for you with their dollar.

You've probably thought about writing & how it could benefit from collaboration before. After all, group perspective can provide more material, more expertise, and more perspectives than any individual writer, right? But, what about one sentence at a time?

Enforcement agencies calling on the public for help in solving crimes has taken a new form thanks to the advent of social media and internet enabled technology. Twitter and Facebook are often used to call on public assistance, and there are even Apps for smartphone users to report crimes or respond to any calls for witnesses, information etc. 

Crowdfunded projects favorably endowed with the indiscriminate magic of digital virality make for good news stories. Indeed, the press on these uncommonly successful projects becomes the initial way many people learn about the concept of crowdfunding. This is great - the more people who understand and participate in crowdfunding, the more likely meritorious ideas are to attract the cash they need.