Procter & Gamble recently crowdsourced several well known brands through P&G’s program “Connect + Develop”. Launched in 2001, as a program in which at least half of the innovation comes from crowdsourcing external sources, Connect + Develop, is tracking to triple the impact of this already successful program through increased product innovation,  development, and existing product reinvention by investing a 30% increase in marketing expenses.

Open innovation continues to chart new territories as more and more airlines start crowdsourcing a range of in-flight accessories, such as design of loyalty cards, eye masks, and even in flight snacks.

Forbes Magazine is acting upon its New Year’s Resolution a few months early.  Its objective? To create an interactive forum between writers, bloggers, advertisers, marketers, and readers in which the readers will have a voice in new features the popular business magazine intends to run, starting with its January 2011 issue.

In September, the Progressive Automotive X Prize of 10 million dollars was split between three teams who designed some of the worlds most energy efficient automobiles. This is the latest step in a groundbreaking movement that allows the public to combine their knowledge and skills to create and develop a product.

Starting at 6pm GMT, on November 2nd, 2010, London Underground will stage its 3rd tubestrike in two months. During the two previous strikes, BBC London used the Ushahidi cloud-based platform, crowdmap to crowdsource reports from Londoners trying to get to and from work. Much has been learned during the previous two outings and hopefully this third test will prove to be indispensable for people trying to move around the capital.

Filmmmaker Ryoko Kawanishi has been announced as the winner of the 2010 London Film Festival’s Unilever Video Contest. Ryoko’s film “The Melody of Skin” promoting Vaseline, was selected from a shortlist of 13 submissions each promoting a different Unilever brand and received its premier viewing at the festival on October 25th. The film will be incorporated into  Unilever’s latest campaign for the famous brand of petroleum jelly.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have driven new technology development and encryption software advances that will enable soldiers to use smart phones within the next two years to crowdsource reconnaissance surveillance endeavors.

Crowdsourcing is being utilized by a group of independent Malaysian film makers, with 20 contributors, and growing. The film, “Your Grandfather’s Road,” is asking members for story directions, character development ideas, and overall design.

A new website and a smart phone application uses crowdsourcing to help track disease outbreaks in animals to help control emerging infections.  A major use for the service is to decrease the number of zoonotic diseases (Diseases that originate in animals and travel to humans).

A recent study aimed at measuring and recording causes of death worldwide, revealed astonishing information that seems to suggest that statistics pertaining to causes of death in most underdeveloped countries seem to be skewed. The study conducted by a group of Canadian researchers and published in Lancet determined that while World Health Organization (WHO) estimated the annual rate of malaria related deaths in India at 15,000, the correct figures seem to be 13 times higher. The study concluded that over 2,00,000 people die of malaria every year in India. They posted their confidence interval levels between 125,000 and 277,000.