Crowdsourcing in environment protection

What's crowdsourcing?
According to Wikipedia: 'Crowdsourcing is a neologism for the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people, in the form of an open call. For example, the public may be invited to develop a new technology, carry out a design task, refine an algorithm or help capture, systematize or analyze large amounts of data.

You can find quite some commerial examples on the Internet, like Innocentive or Kluster.

What could this mean for environmental protection?
To solve environmental issues we need to come up with a solution to get rid of the problem. In this case, the solution is the problem itself and that's us.

So we need to get a large group of people aware and involved. The Internet is a great medium to attract a global community and getting people part of the solution.

The last few months I experienced the way the environmental action organization NRDC gets support from 1.2 million people online activists to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places.

1. Sending out action alerts
NRDC focuses on different theme, short or longer term. NRDC sends out emails to online activists to join them in their effort to solve a specific issues. For example, the Bush administration announced plans to strip the
region's 1,500 wolves of protection under the Endangered Species Act. Besides NRDC's court actions, the organization also asks the opinion of the public. I also got an email to tell my representative that I oppose the Bush Administration's wolf-killing plans.

I think that this kind of 'crowdsourcing' is powerful. In a relatively short period, NRDC is able to activate a big audience.

2. Publish and share solutions
One great example of crowdsourcing is the 'beat the heat' initiative. On the website people join the fight against global warming. Individuals post their concerns but also share thoughts on how to solve the problem. In Holland we have the saying: 'Two know more than one'. This is exactly what NRDC is doing. Together we can solve global warming.

I like the work and efforts that all the people of NRDC are putting in protecting our environment and wildlife.

The principle of 'crowdsourcing' can bring huge advantages in solving enviromental issues. First of all, you can create awareness of specific issues. Secondly, all big group of people will be able to come up with the solution. The solution will most likely be a group of solutions, so sharing all sorts of ideas will add value to the fight against global warming.