The internet doesn't exactly have a great track record when it comes to solving crimes en masse. But recent podcast success Serial shows that there is still an appetite for true crime -- and for attempting to do better as a collective than police agencies and the justice system did on their own.
In that vein, CrowdSolve is a new project asking for donations on IndieGoGo which seeks to allow a mass audience to review the documents and data surrounding criminal cases - and perhaps find information missed by officials.
The website would involve uploading hundreds of documents, and organising users into effectively sorting through them.
"Can the millions of people who have found or rekindled a passion for true crime, armchair sleuthing and internet investigation manage to enact real change? What if we gave them visualization tools, access to raw case data and files, and powerful evidence indexing - all for free?"
There are obvious questions here - legal and ethical. There are also practical implications that may need to be worked through - like what the police or justice advocates are supposed to do when thousands of people start sending their 'theories' through.
If you're interested you can head to the CrowdSolve page - but it might be worth considering donating to similar, established efforts like the Innocence Project, which uses professional lawyers to establish whether prisoners with doubtful convictions might be able to win release through the courts.