Olympus has turned to crowdsourcing to publicize the launch of its PEN E-PM1 camera, with the PEN Ready proejct. It's handing out a thousand of the cameras to so-called 'inspiration seekers' and asking them to contribute the photo and video content. Cameras have been distributed at the Toronto Film Festival, to 100 Tumblr bloggers and, as shown in this video, on a JetBlue flight from New York to Florida. The consumer-produced content is showcased in a gallery, and the best pictures will be featured in a paid campaign next month.

Users can post the content they generate to a Tumblr site, Olympus social sites (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) and ultimately to a paid digital media campaign that will break in October. The campaign will run online and in mobile media.