WHEN Irish online consultancy firm Amas decided to use the web to find solutions to its economic crisis, it was seen as an interesting experiment in "crowdsourcing".

WHEN Irish online consultancy firm Amas decided to use the web to find solutions to its economic crisis, it was seen as an interesting experiment in "crowdsourcing".

The jargon refers to using the internet to outsource a task a company would usually sub-contract, by taking advantage of the mass collaboration possible online.

The Ideas Campaign turned into a runaway success. Although the site was open for contributions for only 26 days, 426 visits were made from 116 countries and a total of 5284 ideas submitted.

An advisory group was set up after the campaign closed in April, to sift ideas and deliver an action plan based on suggestions, and when that was published on May 14, it was immediately backed by most Irish political parties.

Now, in what has been described as a "shameless steal", the housing employers association, EVH, is pioneering a Scottish version. The intention, according to director Foster Evans, is to generate new ideas and spread the word about successful existing approaches.

He says: "It is about looking forward. We are not interested in blaming someone else. There are plenty of people doing that."

Although the situation in Ireland is more dramatic, Scotland also has economic problems to contend with, he adds. "The idea is to produce an action plan that is not only for government - it might be a series of questions people can ask themselves. We are looking for positive ideas, successes and community ideas.

"We want to be innovative and forward-looking. The Irish campaign showed that if you give people the opportunity to contribute ideas, particularly if given focus, then they deliver.

"There it was very much about the economy, but we want it to be more about communities, because when economic difficulties come along, we tend to drop communities. We look for easy solutions."

The other intention is to break down barriers. Due to EVH's main role as employment adviser to housing associations and similar bodies, the site, Community Ideas Campaign, has been largely promoted in that area. But Evans plans to persuade other sectors, including health, police and education, to contribute.

"Everybody thinks in terms of housing, community, recycling and local government. We need to start thinking more about the issues and what can be done. If central government can sort some things, fine. This is more about looking to communities to solve things."

An advisory group will be set up to scrutinise ideas contributed to the site, Evans adds.

"The whole purpose of this is not that EVH takes over the world. The idea is we run it for a short period. Even if only 10% of the ideas are good, we can move forward with them."