Crowdsourced reports highlight mosquito activity

There’s no better source than the crowds to tell it like it is, and we’ve already seen efforts to enlist their help in reporting ski conditions, wildlife sightings and the weather, to name just a few. Now, right on time for summer in the Northern Hemisphere, there’s Myggrapporten, a Swedish mobile app that offers crowdsourced data about mosquito activity. Launched last month, Myggrapporten can be downloaded for free from Apple’s iTunes store for use on the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. Developed for mosquito-repellent firm ThermaCELL, Myggrapporten lets users contribute reports about the level of mosquito activity they encounter as they go about their daily lives and summer travels, rating it anywhere from “minor” to “unbearable.” Such reports are then aggregated and converted into a heat map, revealing to users at a glance the best and worst places to be for avoiding mosquitoes. Just as there’s no outdoing the global brain when it comes to innovation and creativity, so there’s no match for the crowds when it comes to honesty in reporting. App-minded entrepreneurs: where else might the crowds bring some fresh honesty to reporting real-world conditions?