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Wired and Jay Rosen's NewAssignment.Net have launched an ambitious research project called Assignment Zero that will use amateur contributors to research, report and write about crowdsourcing, according to Wired's new Crowdsourcing blog.

"It's called Assignment Zero, so named because we consider it ground zero for a new, hybrid model of open source-slash-citizen media that we're calling Pro-Am journalism," according to blogger Jeff P. Howe.

The idea is to hook up a professional team of editors and writers with a vast pool of talented amateurs - with the goal of getting the best of both worlds: the professional standards on one hand, and the "infinite reservoir of knowledge and reporting power of the crowd."

The research project is similar to citizen journalism sites like South Korea's OhMyNews, which has a professional staff of editors who publish stories and photos written and photographed by amateurs.