oDesk today announced the availability of Facebook Connect for oDesk registered buyers and providers. By integrating with Facebook Connect, oDesk enables its users worldwide to tap their social graph of Facebook friends to source candidates for jobs posted on oDesk, promote their own work skills, and create a verifiable online work presence.

oDesk has announced the launch of oDesk Groups and eleven initial launch partners. Each group is a marketplace sponsored by a partner organization that focuses on a specific language, skill, certification, or interest. Group members consist of service companies or professional contractors that are specialized in the partner’s technology and meet the partner’s membership criteria.

CVSDude, a leading provider of hosted open-source development tools including Subversion (SVN), has teamed up with oDesk, to offer fast-growing software companies access to talented technical professionals and tools that enable faster delivery and higher-quality software products at a fraction of the cost of traditional solutions.

Today oDesk and O'Reilly Media announced a partnership to publish data and trends on the economics of the global programming workforce. An early beta version of the "oDesk Economy" website will be demonstrated at the Web 2.0 Conference this week in San Francisco, and a production version will launch in early 2007.

Elance today announced that GE is deploying the Elance SPM 4? services procurement and management (SPM) application to streamline aspects of buying and managing services—including sourcing, procuring, managing suppliers and engagements, invoicing and analytical reporting—across a wide variety of business units.