Olympus has turned to crowdsourcing to publicize the launch of its PEN E-PM1 camera, with the PEN Ready project. 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 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.