DailyDirt: Getting A Crowd Together...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Mon, Nov 7th 2011 5:00pm — Michael Ho

There have been a few interesting crowdfunding and crowdsourcing projects in recent years -- solving some really difficult problems or just creating cool stuff (out of stuff that didn't seem so cool). Here are just a few more examples of crowd projects that are out there (and are possibly a bit "out there" too).

Collecting a lot of data on earthquakes requires a lot of sensors -- which can now be crowd-purchased to help create a Quake Catcher Network that will deploy seismic sensors and develop an educational game to go along with the sensor network. This project has a $4000 goal, and there's just over a month left to help fund it. [url]
An Android phone placed inside the satellite will be shot into orbit next year, and the Space App competition has picked four apps that will run on this phone as it circles the Earth. One of the apps sounds pretty lame, though. [url]
The Apps for Science challenge has picked a few apps that might help scientists do their work more efficiently. Unfortunately, these apps only work on Elsevier's SciVerse online portal and require a SciVerse account. [url]
To discover more interesting business-related content, check out what the deal is on StumbleUpon. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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Filed Under: apps, crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, earthquakes, satellites
Companies: elsevier

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That Verizon guy, 7 Nov 2011 @ 6:55pm

So if the sound is played through the phone speakers and picked up with the phone mic, I doubt there is a sufficient amount of isolation to limit the vibration through the phone.
Probably not going to get a lot of sound traveling through the vacuum of space but then that is why we do experiments.
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Mr Big Content, 7 Nov 2011 @ 7:52pm

They Should Have Used An Iphone
If they'd used Apple's platform, then they could be sure all the apps were vetted to be malware-free. But by spreading Android, the well-known malware magnet, into space, who knows what virus infections they could be spreading to other worlds? This is just irresponsible.
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Anonymous Marcus, 8 Nov 2011 @ 12:05am

Re: They Should Have Used An Iphone
Agreed. These open platforms have to go. They're putting all of our information in jeopardy. I'm just happy that my iPhone and Mac aren't susceptible to malware at all.
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Michael Ho (profile), 8 Nov 2011 @ 12:16pm

Re:
I'm pretty sure they could have done the experiment of "does sound travel through vacuum" without going into space....
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