Today we proudly announce the creation of Broken Thumbs Apps. Our mission is to build great casual games for the iPhone. Our first app has been under development for the last two months. To learn more about Broken Thumbs Apps, visit our website, follow us on Twitter, or become a fan on our Facebook fan page.

In a future post we will explain our decision to move forward with Broken Thumbs Apps, including some of the trials and tribulations during the creation process.

Until then we are very excited about the potential of Broken Thumbs Apps, and we eagerly await our first app, Snaked, to be approved by Apple!

Recently we ran a contest on 99designs.com for a new logo for one of our divisions (which will be unveiled in August). We chose to run the contest to get some real-life experience using crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing is when you take a task that is normally done inhouse by an employee and then outsource it to an unknown community using an open call.

We learned a few things about crowdsourcing worth sharing here:

• Be as specific as possible. This is true for almost any project, but it is magnified twofold when you are giving a project to a group of people you have never met before. If you start to get a lot of designs that you feel are missing the point, it’s probably because you are not communicating your needs well enough. Be detailed and make sure that even someone who does not know you can understand your requirements.
• Feedback, feedback, feedback. One thing that we did really well was responding to any and all designs over the seven-day period as quickly and as often as possible. We wanted to create a meaningful dialogue with the designers to help build a blueprint that would entice undecided designers to enter the contest. Remember, the more you put into the contest, the better your results will be. It is the GIGO (garbage in/garbage out) truism all over again.
• Bad can be good, but good is great. The great thing about the contest was seeing all the creative ideas that the designers came up with. Some of them did not fit what we were looking for, but they often sparked more ideas, which eventually led us to the logo we chose. It was much different (and definitely better) from our original idea for the logo.
• Crowdsourcing does have its down side. If you think crowdsourcing will save you money, then think again. Crowdsourcing can end up taking twice as much time to manage, and you may end up with something less than ideal for your needs. Still, it’s enjoyable to brainstorm with a large group of excited, motivated people who you would otherwise never have met.

Although I would not advocate using crowdsourcing for an entire project, I do think it has its uses and advantages. For example, it could be very useful in providing your core team with a different perspective. One of the problems with innovative companies is that the longer people work with each other the more they tend to think alike. Crowdsourcing can give you and your team a new viewpoint to consider. It’s also a great way to evaluate your future contractors or employees.

We are now officially on twitter. To follow us just type in @w3innovations or click here to see our page http://twitter.com/w3innovations.