NavFree, a division of application publisher Navmii, has created the world’s first free onboard iPhone and iPad navigation application using its own community to crowdsource accurate, real-time digital mapping for users.

It should be a known fact that government funding for the arts is dwindling. Theatre companies are hurting.  Options range from increasing ticket prices, to producing less expensive productions, or fundraising. Crowdfunding engines like Kickstarter are based on the concept that many small donations can add up to a lot of money. People pledge what they can, and only if the project meets its entire goal within a specified time frame, does the company get any money.

World of Warcraft, or WoW, has attracted millions of subscribers from all corners of the world. The players of this Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, MMORPG for short, are a part of an ever changing world of fantasy and adventure. With a huge fan-base, World of Warcraft developer, Blizzard Entertainment, has taken the time to listen to devoted players, in hopes of enhancing game play and improving the story line. Blizzard seems to be taking a crowdsourcing approach to software development.

Dutch website SellaBand’s crowdfunding exercise to source funds for Public Enemy’s new album has proved to be a success as Public Enemy acknowledges the receipt of $75,000 from fans.

Google has followed the example of other web application developers by crowdsourcing experts for consultation on security issues within their own products. They have invited security researchers and hackers from all over the world (except countries banned by the US government), to act as bounty hunters in checking those Google products where sensitive user data is stored, find any weaknesses or bugs and fix them before they are detected and abused.

Twitter has become a priceless resource for organizations that track natural disasters and events like earthquakes. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) utilizes a Twitter-based program known as TED (Twitter Earthquake Dispatch) that searches for words related to earthquakes to track and map quakes all over the world.

Virgin Mobile has recently launched an Australian web-based radio station specifically built for Virgin Mobile customers. Radio free is the first Australian radio station not owned by a radio network. Produced by DMG radio, Radio free is a fully crowdsourced project that has Virgin Mobile’s support for at least 12 months.

It may now be possible to use crowdosurcing in order to determine the world’s greatest books. Eric Morgan, creator of Infomations LLC, an organisation specialising in establishing and maintaining digital libraries, announced on 2nd November 2010 the creation of an interactive survey in which mathematical model would determine the greatness of a book by analysing the data submitted by users or poll-takers.

In a sea of new search engines, a new one has recently emerged that will rely completely on crowdsourcing to provide data to its users. “Blekko,” modeled after Wikipedia, launched November 1st, and will utilize input from people to create and develop search options.

Google’s new Demo Slam competition creates awareness of Google’s wide range of products as crowdsourcers submit videos detailing helpful insights into the benefits of Google products in a new crowdsourcing competition.