> I'm certain that many benefits from OS development would carry through to equivalent investigations, especially through harnessing the collective problem solv

> I'm certain that many benefits from OS development would carry through to equivalent investigations, especially through harnessing the collective problem solving abilities of communities like HN. Given the recent high-profile incident where internet crowdsourcing converged on identifying two innocent people as responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing, and then attempted to spread their personal information as widely as possible, I don't think this approach currently has a good reputation. I think it's an interesting question what crowdsourcing works well and poorly for. But I'd put criminal investigations way down the list of good candidates, due to the danger of devolving into mob justice, and even raising the risk of innocent people being lynched.