crowd sourcing

kudzu Surviving the Invasive Plants Apocalypse with Citizen Science Apps

There are more than 6,500 invasive plant species in the US that threaten native flora and fauna. Mobile apps can be tools that let citizen scientists help researchers collect data on invasive plants. Here's a roundup of apps that let you track these species by collecting photos, coordinates, and sighting information.

Pamela Rentz's picture
Pamela Rentz
crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing Emerging Manufacturing and Water Security Technology

Borrowing from the successful NASA Challenges playbook, the US Department of Energy recently launched several crowdsourcing efforts to incentivize new applications and technologies in additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, and transforming nontraditional water sources into resources.

Pamela Rentz's picture
Pamela Rentz
treesnap app logo Citizen Scientist Project: Saving Trees with Apps

Our forests struggle with invasive species and pests, yet some trees still survive. Why? To find out, scientists need resilient trees to study, and that’s where technology and citizen scientists can contribute—with TreeSnap, a free mobile app that enables everyday people to tag trees that scientists can study.

Pamela Rentz's picture
Pamela Rentz
RoboBee Can the IoT Help Save the Bees?

More than one-third of all crops in the US require insect pollination, and managed honey bee colonies are our main resource. According to the US Department of Agriculture, beekeepers have been steadily losing colonies, but the IoT may be able to help with some interesting projects.

Pamela Rentz's picture
Pamela Rentz
Technology for the Birds

Here’s an event to schedule in your calendar for the weekend of February 12–15, 2016. It's Valentine's Day weekend—and it's a chance to give Mother Nature a valentine by participating in the online annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) to help create a real-time snapshot of bird populations.

Pamela Rentz's picture
Pamela Rentz
Best Selfie Ever: NASA's Global Earth Day

NASA had an ambitious event this year to create a “global selfie,” a crowd-sourced mosaic image that would resemble Earth as it appeared from space on Earth Day—and more than 50,000 people responded. The result is a zoomable 3.2 gigapixel image built with more than 36,000 individual images.

Pamela Rentz's picture
Pamela Rentz
Using Crowd Wisdom as a Marketing Tool

Crowdsourcing in its various forms has become a powerful technique used to connect with the end users and community, to engage with them, and to leverage their wisdom. While each form is powerful in its own right, crowd wisdom is becoming an important and inevitable marketing tool.

Rajini  Padmanaban's picture
Rajini Padmanaban