I love my iPhone and just last night were hunting for my next favorite app!

I came across a great usage of an iPhone app for crowdsourcing…for a greater good.  It is called Creekside .. click here to learn more. 

This application enables everyone to contribute to cleaning up our waterways — crowdsourcing if you would for the world!

What is crowdsourcing?  To me, it is a world of the future.  It involves leveraging the “crowds” or all of us on the blogsphere to enhance products or services, provide a point of view, or even better the world. 

In this example, Creekside involves crowdsourcing problems with our waterways.

How do you get started?  You can download this from the Apple App Store and is free.  It is very easy to use — it took me only seconds!!  

First, you see a waterway — like a creek or lake that I stopped by yesterday. 

Use your iPhone to take a picture and then upload the following information:

  • Water level (dry, some or full)
  • Flow rate (still, slow or fast)
  • Trash (none, some, a lot)
  • What happens next?

    This social application then aggregates the data.  You can see what others have uploaded or written — that’s the crowdsourcing magic! 

    As the data is consolidated, it is shipped to the water control boards in the local regions.

    Watch the why s of the application!

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/_–6KAptDL4&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” allowScriptAccess=”always” width=”640″ height=”390″>]

    Do you have another great Crowdsourcing Application?  I’d love to see it.