This week the Senate's passage of a bill to legalize crowdfunding for equity in the U.S. naturally dominated news in the crowdsourcing world, but there was plenty of non-crowdfunding happenings, too.

Crowdfunding's SRO

Okay, so there was some more crowdfunding news to report this week following the Senate's passage of the JOBS Act. The Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Association came together to serve as the industry's self-regulating organization. The CFIRA begins with the Startup Exemption, The Soho Loft Capital Creation Events, Gate Technologies and GATE Impact as founding partners. According to a release from the new organization,

CFIRA will provide intermediaries with regulation, reporting, and compliance oversight and will provide investors with educational tools to help make more informed decisions about the opportunities and risks of CrowdFund Investing. CFIRA is committed to working with the SEC to create reasonable and appropriate regulations and oversight to reduce fraud and protect investors. 

Crowdfunding services born?

Also in response to the Senate's vote and the pending birth of a new crowdfunding market in the U.S., CrowdFund Securities announced the launch of new services for anyone looking for an agent or representative in the not yet existent crowdfunding market.

More for oDesk's Cash Drawer

Cloud labor firm oDesk has continued to grow its client list and its coffers since 2007, and announced this week that it had raised an additional $15 million in its fourth round of funding. The round will be used to scale and expand the business and was led by Henry Ellenbogen of T. Rowe Price, Benchmark Capital, Globespan Venture Partners, and Sigma Partners.

A Kickstarter to buy kickstarter

In the ultimate meta-crowdfunding prank, someone posted a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to buy Kickstarter, with rewards including "I will personally autograph your Kickstarter." Sadly, the link now returns a 404 error.

Heineken Crowdsources new bottle design

Heineken is going to great lengths to crowdsource the design of its new 140th anniversary bottle, the finalists are revealed in the video below: