More precisely, he used crowdSPRING, an online marketplace for creative services, to have designers create designs for his new site, and the public can vote on the design they like best. Honda, however, doesn't take the concept of crowdsourcing all the way, because the final design will be chosen on criteria other than public votes.
From the official press release:
"Many government websites have good content, but the content is often very hard to find. We are giving power to you, and democratizing the way we interact with the public ... The final design will be chosen based on constituent input, design functionality, usability, and other criteria."
Using crowdsourcing in a project like this can work out really well; a recent example of how this can be done well is the redesign of Linux.com. Politicians, however, are often scared of not being in total control of their campaigns, and have therefore so far been reluctant to embrace such initiatives.
Although Honda doesn't rely purely on crowdsourcing, this initiative will probably encourage other politicians to rely more on social media and the wisdom of crowds in their work; after all, carrying out the wishes and demands of the public is exactly what a congressman is elected to do.
The first batch of designs is up on crowdSPRING, you can check them out (and vote for them) here.
