In early December a Supernova session entitled, How Startup Companies Can Change the World had presenters brainstorm ways to connect the technology industry with policy makers. Coupled with many of the discussions already taking place in the Gov. 2.0 movement, the session looked at how technologists can contribute to projects they might not normally be associated with. This morning we received news on how one initiative is taking this collaboration further by applying the labor-on-demand service model so common to startups and putting it to use for disaster relief.

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Three months after the earthquake in Haiti, workforce-on-demand service Crowdflower issued the results of its latest initiative with Mission 4636. Following the quake, Mission 4636 members – in association with open-source disaster technology provider Instedd, refugee microwork provider Samasource and real-time mapping and tracking service Ushahidi – issued a text message short code (4636) for Haitians requiring urgent help. From there, Crowdflower and Samasource’s remote labor forces collected, translated and geocoded over 16,000 messages. The messages were then released as an RSS feed and groups like the Red Cross, charity:water, UNDP and FEMA tracked the feeds for messages that pertained to their work specifically.

According to the group, at peak volume more than 5,000 Haitian distress messages were processed in one hour. This single stream of information helped ensure that duplicate efforts from these normally fragmented government and NGO groups were kept to a minimum.

Said Crowdflower CEO Lukas Biewald, “Harnessing thousands of volunteers would normally create a logistical nightmare, but it is specifically this kind of amorphous virtual labor force that the CrowdFlower platform was built to accommodate.”

While it’s certainly unconventional to see a remote labor force employed for disaster relief of this magnitude, it’s not unrealistic to think that this practice might become common in a location where cell tower infrastructure remains intact. Perhaps the bigger question for the startup community is what other world-changing solutions are sitting right under our noses? If you’ve got examples of how startup processes can improve disaster relief and emergency services let us know in the comments below.

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German navigation company Skobbler is bringing their turn-by-turn, OSM iPhone streetmap application to the United States. Skobbler describes itself as “an Internet community with a free mobile phone navigation system.”

Skobbler has been testing the application in several states in the last few weeks and has reportedly found the OpenStreetMap data quite good. OSM is a collaborative, crowdsourced project to map the world from the ground up, using volunteers and an emphasis on open-source presentation and rendering.

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Skobbler is comparable in its leverage of community and focus on open source to the more established Waze.

Skobbler had jettisoned NAVTEQ data and debuted with OSM in Germany in March. After a rocky start it has found its way into the top ten downloads in the German iTunes store.

“Skobbler is using consumer feedbacks (reporting is integrated into the application) and the GPS tracks generated by users to improve the map data in co-operation with OSM volunteers,” according to GPS Business News’s Ludovic Privat.

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Are you involved in a non-profit in the Bay Area that could use a spruced up website? Given that a lot of these organizations are run by volunteers and have to be very careful about how they spent their money, it doesn’t come as a surprise that web design isn’t always a priority for a lot of non-profits. Web design firm ZURB, which has done design work for companies like Facebook, Yahoo, eBay and the New York Stock Exchange, is giving away a full redesign (or a completely new design) to a deserving Bay Area non-profit.

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How To Apply

While ZURB is announcing this competition today, submissions won’t officially open until March 4th – though the company told us that they would be more than happy to look at early submissions, too. Non-profits will be able to submit their proposals until March 18th and the actual redesign will happen during a 24-hour design marathon on April 8th. The only requirement for applying is that the non-profit has enough passionate volunteers and employees who are willing to help out on April 8th.

If you want to submit a proposal, here is what you need to do:

Email wired@zurb.com with the following info:

• The project you need design help with
• Details about the team that’s going to be at ZURB’s office for 24 hours on April 8th
• Why your organization is a fit for ZURBwired

Previous winners include the Pie Ranch and Second Harvest Food Bank.

The company is also looking for additional volunteers to help out during the 24-hour marathon session. You can find additional videos from last year’s event here.

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