Asking contributors to “write the story on open-source car design” had all the appeal of asking people to rewrite their college term papers. Asking them to talk to someone they admire and respect was met with a far warmer response. —Jeff Howe —Did Assignment Zero Fail? A Look Back, and Lessons Learned (Wired)

An assessment of Wired’s pro-am journalism experiment. Can a crowd of volunteers produce quality news reporting?