US military embraces crowdsourcing to solve technical challenges

Crowdsourcing, the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from the online community, is a major trend that has grown as the world has become more wired and more connected. Many companies have adopted the model to create new products, even books and films and other creative endeavors have been fulfilled through the collaborative efforts of crowds. Now comes the Air Force Collaboratory, a US government project meant to Solve some of the military's toughest challenges by opening them up to collaboration. Through their website, civilians are invited to work alongside real Airmen on real Air Force projects. They include developing new technologies for search and rescue operations, building a system that allows a quadrotor to navigate its surroundings with minimal human interaction, and targeting GPS coordinates to launch satellites. Can you benefit from this trend?