The deafening roar of debate over the crowdfunding provisions in the JOBS act dominated this week, but there was also plenty of other crowdsourcing news going down worldwide.

Rewarding Startups from the Crowd

Seedups says it plans to test just how viable legal crowdfunding could be in the U.S. It's crowdfunding a $1 million prize fund, with a single start-up taking home the $500,000 top prize. Founder Michael Faulkner, says "this is a great opportunity to prove the power of the crowd. We believe that Crowdfund 1 Million will showcase some great start-ups and highlight how important crowdfunding can be to raising finance and launching new businesses."

World Record Scavenger Hunt

Seedups made its big announcement in conjunction with South by Southwest, and at the same time Freelancer.com was also using the interactive festival in Austin to demonstrate crowd power with a worldwide scavenger hunt. Thousands around the globe participated in complicated tasks to set a Guinness World Record and compete for prize money.

WeDidThis and peoplefund.it join forces

 Two big names in crowdfunding in the UK teamed up this week, with peoplefund.it welcoming WeDidThis as its arts channel provider. WeDidThis has recently supported the Accidental Festival and a project to save Cornwall's Bridge Gallery, among other efforts.

Ahhha 2.0

 I promised you it wasn't all crowdfunding this week. Time to deliver. AHHHA.com introduced version 2 of its Social Ideation platform this week. It's also announcing its first four concepts to come to market-- Sleeper Sleeve, the PinPoint App, a Portable Homeless Shelter and Sutton’s Theory.

Peer-to-Peer lending moves North to South

Nordic social banking company isePankur.ee says it's going global. The peer-to-peer lender has teamed up with Estonia's Helmes to launch white label social banking software.

"We have already completed our first sale to a company in South Africa who shall soon launch the only social banking and online lending venture in the country,” explained Pärtel Tomberg, CEO of isePankur.

 - Eric Mack is a contributing editor for Crowdsourcing.org. He also currently contributes to CNET. In the past, his work has been featured by NPR, Wired, the New York Times and other outlets. You can contact him at eric.mack@crowdsourcing.org. Find him on Twitter and Google+. Also be sure to follow Crowdsourcing.org on Twitter.