The translation network Lingotek is running a contest which will award the winners two tickets for this year’s CrowdConf2011 as well as a one year access to Lingotek’s Collaborative Translation Platform – Hosted Version. All the contestants have to do is to write an essay about the importance of translation in global business.

Crowd Leader, David Alan Grier, has just been elected as incoming President of the IEEE Computer Society. IEEE is the world’s foremost membership organization for computing professionals. Grier has been the acting First Vice President and Vice President of Publications for the IEEE Computer Society for the past year. Grier’s election as President will round out his already thorough understanding of the inner workings of a trade association.

On September 28, The Economist named Marc Koska OBE, inventor of the K1 Auto-Disable (AD) syringe, as the winner of its award for social and economic innovation for the year 2011. Koska came up with the idea for the syringe in 1984 after reading an article in a newspaper that said reused syringes would become a key means of transmission for HIV/AIDS.

GE is searching for new ideas that will improve breast cancer diagnostics. The challenge has been launched in collaboration with venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Venrock, Mohr Davidow and MPM Capital. The purpose is to generate new solutions faster through collaboration, and make screening and breast cancer information more accessible worldwide. By 2020 the goal is to improve the lives of 10 million patients across the globe.

The crowdsourcing and open innovation problem solving platform InnoCentive has just announced that its online scoring technology Prodigy, which is used for analytical challenges, is being upgraded with several enhancements.

The Daily Crowdsource is pleased to announce the winners of its first International Crowdsourcing Excellence Award. The ICE Award is crowdsourcing’s highest honor, and was created to recognize the individual workers that have made an impact in the crowdsourcing world based on creativity and impressive work.

MOFILM has just announced the introduction of the Talent Rate Card, which will extend MOFILM rewards from filmmakers to actors and actresses. The Talent Rate Card is a one-off payment to each of the main actors and actresses starring in the winning movies that are aired in cinemas or in television.

The Standby Task Force and Amnesty International USA’s human rights program is recruiting volunteers to help geographically pinpoint human rights violations taking place in the Syrian rebellion. The program began in early September and asks the participants to look through up to date satellite imagery for indications of demonstrations, military action or troop movements. In the first month of the operation volunteers have found more than 2000 trouble spots. The high resolution images are provided by DigitalGlobe.

In June of this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission halted two marketing execs as they tried to raise $300 million in online pledges to purchase Pabst Brewing Co. Prompted by this high-profile case, Congress scheduled a hearing on September 15 to look at ways in which entrepreneurs and fast-growing companies can find it easier to use crowdsourcing to raise money in the future.

Jim Kukral, an internet marketing professional, has just raised $16,000 in only seven days in a crowdfunding campaign he launched to fund his upcoming book series called Business Around a Lifestyle.