As we get to know different parts of the puzzle about the Boston Marathon bombers, one thing has become clear. The biggest leads came from cameras that were in the hands of private citizens.

To this end, read this by someone who predicted citizens’ potential:

If the day comes when millions of people go about their lives while wearing sensor-equipped wearable computers, the population could become a collective surveillant: Big everybody.

That was Howard Rheingold, in Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution.

How will citizen participation take shape when everyone is a reporter, a photo-journalist? It’s easy to be cynical, but I have talked to many people about this, in my book, Chat Republic, and have to admit that you win some, you lose some: freedom / security.

Crowd-sourcing, whether it is investigating health issues or knowledge is always a good thing.