Scientist Gale McCullough of Hancock Maine has been able to trace the record breaking journey of a single humpback whale after ploughing through the photo sharing website Flickr. The whale known only as number 1363 is believed to have undertaken a journey from one breeding ground to another totalling over 6,000 miles, illustrating the never – ending potential of social media data sharing and crowdsourcing.

A unique idea has been developed to bridge the American-Arabic cultural gap and cement ties between the youth of both nationals. The online project entitled YALLAH (Youth Allied to Learn, Lead and Help) aims at bringing the teenagers from both the cultures together through crowdsourced translation exercises and is expected to help public diplomacy. The program launched on October 1 with a crowdsourced website that is open to more than 150 teenage alumni of the QFI’s prior student-exchange programs with the United States.

Humanitarianism can cause a lot of controversy amongst people nowadays, and the reason why it causes various reactions is not the idea of helping but the way it’s applied.  Crowdsourcing is now seen as a possibility to calm the spirits and improve the system which is meant to help the ones in need.

Creators of SellaBand got tired of listening to the same old music on the radio and decided to start a platform for artists to raise money and become “famous” without having to go the traditional route. Fans choose who to support on SellaBand, give money, and get incentives for their support.

HiretheWorld, which was a nascent idea 17 months ago, became a global network of graphic designers when CEO, Terry Beech conceived the notion of providing a crowdsourcing platform for companies in search of design talent to design their latest products. Beech teamed up with his twin brother Doug and friend Arash Afrooze to convert their concept into an enterprise bringing cost effective design solutions to companies around the globe.

Sour, a Japanese band, crowdsourced their music video for the song Hibo No Neiro (Tone of Everyday). They used highly-choreographed cast members from different countries all around the world, four different directors, months of planning and four weeks of shooting to bring this about, but the effect is extraordinary.

Garden sharing sites such as We Patch, is one of a dozen revolutionary web-based tools that helps connect unused plots of land with ready and able farmers. Founded in 2008 by writer and agriculture advocate Peter Rothbart, We Patch has the potential to improve the quality of life for communities in urban areas. Sporting the slogan “Plant Together, Grow Together”, this free service allows members to find and list, by location, unused plots of land that are in need of a little gardening attention. Likewise, gardeners who do not have their own land are able to list themselves as gardeners in need of land. Once the two parties have found each other an agreement can be made that will be mutually beneficial. Arrangements can be as simple as a handshake or a written agreement with complex clauses.

SlimWare Utilities has announced SlimComputer, software that will assist in removing bloatware from new computers. The 1.0 version was released on October 12 and helps computer owners identify and remove those pre-loaded “promotional programs , toolbars, links to advertising or trial offers.” Bloatware is typically undesirable because of the slowdown effect it has on new computers.

In a collaboration announced on October 15, Google and SLOOH will work together to use SLOOH images in the Google Sky layer of Google Earth. This will add images of tens of thousands of celestial objects into Google Sky, and more images will be added as soon as they are captured.

The Statue of Liberty, a gift to America from the French in the late 1800’s, almost didn’t make it across the ocean due to The American Committee’s inability to raise enough money to finance the site and the pedestal on which the statue would sit.  Thankfully, Joseph Pulitzer and his newspaper, “The World,” turned to an early form of crowdfunding by involving the American people in his campaign to complete the monumental project.