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Facebook is opening its experimental predictions app to all users
For better or worse, Facebook's Forecast will crowdsource users' predictions about important issues like the 2020 election and COVID-19.
MIT is crowdsourcing hurricane flood maps in Florida
People in Broward County, Florida have one more map to rely on this weekend as Hurricane Irma passes through the state. MIT has launched RiskMap, a crowdsourced platform meant to track and map flooding by relying on people's social media reports, as a pilot project. The county's residents can update the map by contacting its Twitter DM, Telegram and Facebook Messenger chatbots. They'll then have to submit their location, a description of its conditions and a photo showing its current flood level. Other residents and officials planning evacuations or sending help can then see those updates on the map as they go live.
Ford’s Chariot rideshare service expands to New York City
New Yorkers are set to get yet another transportation option this summer, when Ford's shuttle service Chariot expands into the city. The service initially launched in San Francisco in September 2016, with the automaker not long after announcing its plans to roll it out to eight new cities in 2017. Chariot is part of Ford's continued investment into its Smart Mobility program. When it arrives in New York the service will run two pre-planned routes in Manhattan and Brooklyn for $4 per ride, with additional crowdsourced routes to be added at a later date.
ZTE's crowdsourced gadget competition is down to five
Since August, ZTE has been running an American Idol-style contest where, instead of singers, people are asked to judge the firm's future product development. Users were asked to suggest plausible ideas that the company could create and sell within the next rough year, that folks could then vote on. ZTE took three of those offerings, added a further two from a concept phase, and will now put all five to a very public final vote. Between now and October 19th, you'll be able to select which of the potential candidates you'd like to see built — and hopefully will buy once it hits shelves.
Fresco News teams with Fox stations for crowd-sourced coverage
Back in January, Fresco News launched an Apple TV app to deliver a curated feed of crowd-sourced breaking news coverage. Now, the citizen journalism app is working with local Fox affiliates to make user-submitted photos and videos part of regular new coverage. Television stations in 11 cities will be able to send out location-based alerts through the Fresco iOS app in hopes of getting first-person coverage.
Mapping project catalogs Instagram sunrises from around the world
Have you noticed the wealth of sunrise and sunset photos on Instagram? Michelle Chandra certainly has, and her project offers a look at the sun's activity around the world in real time. "All Our Suns" gathers snapshots upload with either the #sunrise or #sunset hashtag, using the posts to populate a set of data-driven maps. Two of the crowdsourced cartography pieces catalog every image that's uploaded during the course of a 24-hour period -- one for sunrises and one for sunsets based on a user's location. What's more, you can click on a location marker to view the photo. A third map notes times when two people are posting at the same time, with one updating the beginning and the other observing the end of a day. The whole thing is a study on how our lives literally revolve around the sun and how social networks illustrate time as a never-ending loop.
Jolla wants you to fund and develop its new tablet (update: funded!)
Yesterday, Jolla teased "something big" and has just revealed what that is: the Jolla Tablet with Sailfish 2.0. There's just one caveat, however -- you'll have to design and fund it yourself. It's now up on Indiegogo with a $380,000 target, and Jolla has said that it's taking suggestions from users for features, with the best ideas up-voted to make the cut, Reddit-style. Those features will likely be software tweaks or other details, as all of the main specs appear to be locked down. It'll have a 7.85-inch, 2,048 x 1,536 screen, 64-bit Intel quad-core CPU, 32GB of upgradeable memory, a 5-megapixel camera and a 4,300 mAh battery. The price will start at $189.
Quirky and GE cook up a smarter, prettier air conditioner
Quirky is more than just bendy power strips these days -- recently, it's been pushing its vision of the connected home thanks to a multi-million dollar partnership with GE. So far their deal has yielded stuff like intelligent egg trays (seriously) and clocks, but they're unveiling something much cooler today: the Aros, an 8,000 BTU smart air conditioner. Yes, really.
Star Citizen reaches $31 million, no wait, make that $32 million
The stack of cash crowdsourced by Chris Roberts' upcoming space epic, Star Citizen, continues to grow, with the latest tally putting the game over the $32 million mark. As with all new Star Citizen milestones, topping $32 million means that Roberts Space Industries has unveiled a new ship to be included in the game. This time around the reward is the Aegis Surveyor, an "industrial-quality salvage ship" designed for deep-space exploration and the salvage of derelict ships. It's low on firepower, but comes equipped with heavily reinforced hulls making it ideal for transporting large amounts of cargo that you'd rather not see blown to pieces in the inky void of space. Devoted Joystiq readers will notice that we seemingly stopped keeping close tabs on the sum raised by Star Citizen in September, when the game topped $18 million. Not because the game's crowdsourced success is unimpressive, but because Star Citizen continues to break new funding goals on a daily basis. Only three days ago the game was breaking the $29 million mark, and it's now well on its way to $33 million.
Shadow of the Eternals Kickstarter struggling, donations to be refunded should campaign fail
Eighteen days away from the end of its alloted lifespan, Precursor Games' Kickstarter fundraiser for Shadow of the Eternals has raised $117,484 of its $1.35 million dollar goal. Add that to the $157,415 Precursor has raised on its own website, and the entire movement has amassed $273,944 since this whole deal started back on May 6. At its current rate, the Kickstarter campaign will top out at around $234,000, according to Kicktraq's analysis as of press time. "If the project does not reach its goal on Kickstarter, we will refund all pledges made through PayPal on our own site," Precursor COO Shawn Jackson said during a recent Reddit AMA. He also said, should the fundraising campaign fail, continued work on the game will be "unlikely," as Precursor does "not have any other source of funding." "We will entertain all options to make this game a reality because we believe in this project," Jackson said. "However, we can't be sure a publisher will share our vision for interacting with the community during development, or this would work in the traditional model."
From the folks who brought you Flip Video: Knowmia, an online vid platform for students and teachers
The co-founders of the late Flip Video portable shooters have created an internet-based platform for both students and teachers alike, in which they hope to help by offering over 7,000 online lessons -- with said number expected to grow over time, naturally. For starters, the crowdsourced project, dubbed Knowmia, has video tidbits from all kinds of subjects, such as history, algebra, and, of course, grammar and writing skills. Meanwhile, teachers can register themselves on the site at no cost, after which they can easily create their own lessons and put up for the world to see and learn from them. All in all, there's no doubt Knowmia's looking like a promising hub for scholars, lecturers and even the curios folk, so here's to hoping it becomes a go-to place for those looking to soak up some additional wisdom.
Gambitious launching itself as a game-focused crowdsourcing center
Crowdsourcing is becoming the new trend, with Kickstarter projects serving as the new hotness for getting a game start-up funded. So it's not hard to understand why Gambitious is promoting itself as an alternative to Kickstarter, specifically as a means to fund game development via crowdsourced projects. Gambitious has more to it than just the idea being a game-focused alternative to the Kickstarter giant, however; it includes an option for investors and backers to take part in equity funding. Traditionally, Kickstarter backers receive only a few bonuses for funding a project, and if that project goes on to wild success after the initial funding, the backers are left out. Equity funding allows people to play a more traditional venture capitalist role, investing money in return for dividends on successful projects. While this option is available only in Europe at the moment due to legal issues, it's a new take on funding a game, and depending on future developments, Gambitious might make a name for itself in the indie gaming market.
Kickstarter details the year that was: 27k projects, almost $100 million in funding
Just how big a year was 2011 for Kickstarter? Very nearly a $100 million dollar year. That was the total amount of funding pledged on the crowd-sourced site during the year ($99,344,382, specifically), which is up considerably from the $27.6 million pledged in 2010. That was generated by just over 27,000 projects, 11,836 of which reached their funding goals (a success rate of 46%, up from 43% in 2010). What's more, while tech-related projects may generate the most attention 'round these parts, film and music projects were actually the two biggest cash draws on the site (netting $32 million and $19 million, respectively). Hit the source link below for the company's complete wrap-up.
Wiretapping Act could spell 'finito' for Italian Wikipedia
This week, lawmakers in Italy are debating a controversial new bill that could have disastrous implications for Wikipedia. Yesterday, the encyclopedia posted a lengthy letter on its Italian portal, informing visitors that the site may be shuttered within the country if parliament passes the proposed DDL Intercettazioni, or "Wiretapping Law." If ratified, the legislation would require all online publishers to amend any content considered objectionable or defamatory within 48 hours of receiving a complaint. Offenders would face a fine of €12,000 (about $16,000), and any requested corrections would not be subject to review. Of course, this presents obvious problems for the crowdsourced (and crowd-edited) Wikipedia, which characterized the law as "an unacceptable restriction of [its] freedom and independence." The site took particular umbrage at the bill's apparent disregard for third-party review, pointing out that the "opinion of the person allegedly injured is all that is required" to force a re-write, "regardless of the truthfulness of the information deemed as offensive, and its sources." At the moment, the portal is still up, but masked by Wikipedia's letter. If the Wiretapping Law progresses further, however, the organization says it will have no choice but to delete its Italian platform altogether. [Image courtesy of Toutlecine]
Google acquires Zagat: good news for foodies, bad news for Yelp?
Long before Yelp, there was Zagat -- a point-based restaurant rating guide, compiled from the best (or worst, depending) crowdsourced reviews. Today, Google has acquired the brand and plans to integrate Zagat's now expanded shopping, eating, drinking and hotel tips into both search and maps. For gastronomes, travelers and locals, that means crowdsourced tips for superb noms and activity recommendations from around the world. Sounds great, guys, as long as your new found friendship helps us find the best bacon-flavored ice cream cone, we're all for it.
3G coverage survey gives British smartphone users little to smile about
The UK has plenty of endearing olde worlde attributes, but its lack of fast mobile data access isn't one of them. The country has yet to enter the LTE era and, according to a crowdsourced survey by the BBC, it's still plagued by "not spots" where you can't get 3G reception either. More than 40,000 Brits downloaded a tailor-made Android app that recorded their local street level access and their results proved that many city centers and rural areas are effectively no-go swamplands for smartphone users -- although coverage was good over 70- to 80-percent of Her Majesty's territory. It's about time we did a similar survey in the US. Oh, and check out the source link to watch a Galaxy II-owning village vicar vent his frustrations in the politest possible way.
Iceland's crowdsourced constitution submitted for approval, Nyan Cat takes flight over Reykjavik
A committee of 25 Icelanders submitted the first draft of a rewritten constitution to the country's parliamentary speaker Friday, and despite our recommendations, Rebecca Black was conspicuously absent from the proceedings. The democratic experiment bravely asked citizens to log on to Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and Twitter to engage with the committee in a discussion about the nation's future. While the project's Facebook page played host to pleads for free ice cream and more volcanoes, the constitution's creators managed to stay on task, focusing on issues of decentralization and transparency in government. The draft is slated for review beginning October 1st.
Apple wants to make your calendar sensitive to location and traffic, get you there on time
As Apple rushed to allay privacy concerns over its handling of location data, it also let slip that it was working on a "crowd-sourced traffic database". Now a patent application dating from 2009 has been made public which suggests Apple is thinking of this technology not merely as an add-on to iOS Maps, but as something which could feed into other areas such as calendars and alarms. The implicit suggestion is that if Apple can figure out how long it will take you to get from A to B, then it should be able to adjust your appointments to make sure you get there on time without having to go on a rampage. Until then, if everyone just stays out of the way, then no one will get hurt.
Apple confirms it's working on a traffic service, moving away from Google Maps?
It wasn't the main thrust of its "Q&A on Location Data" this morning, but Apple did also make a bit of news while it tried to ease those privacy concerns about how it's handling your data. The company says it "is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database," and that it's hoping to provide iPhone users with an "improved traffic service in the next couple of years." It didn't divulge much more than that, unfortunately, but that little detail lines up with some other navigation-related developments out of the company as of late. It acquired web mapping firm Poly9 last July (in addition to Google Maps rival Placebase in late 2009), and just last month a couple of job postings revealed that it was looking for folks to "radically improve" the iOS Maps experience. Add all those together and it's starting to look an awful lot like a shift away from Google Maps in favor of an all-Apple solution -- much like how the company relied on Skyhook until it could roll its own WiFi geolocation service.
