Crowdsourcing

About this, at least, there can be little dispute: Google did the right thing in recently removing the  Make Me Asian  app from its Play store. What's more worthy of developer attention is the process by which it happened and how similarly controversial apps might be stopped before they reach distribution.

Marcellus, NY.-based Applits LLC is gearing up to launch the first week of voting in what promises to be a monthly competition among an online community to choose the best of a series of submissions to its Web site. It is an example of crowdsourcing, a way of tapping into the collective wisdom of the crowd to create new products, services and breakthrough ideas.