Resources thinking is the trick of being very smart and only using means that don’t cost anything. The conventional way to solve problems is to throw money at it, but resources thinking is about finding free or very cheap ways to solve problems. The protagonists in “Shawshank Redemption” and “The Count of Monte Cristo” actually use resources to escape out of prison. Murali Loganathan and Bala Ramadurai describe resources in this 4th podcast of TRIZ India.
TRIZ India Community Blog 
Dr. Ellen Domb’s comments over email:
Hi, Bala: Good discussion, and I’ll “tweet” it and do other publicity too.
BUT—the example on people stuck in traffic is incomplete.
You do not have to ask people to text about being stuck in traffic. The resource that is used is the cell system itself. When people are stuck, their signal stays with one cell tower (when they are moving, the signal is transferred from one tower to the next) There is a system that takes the cell phone tower data (a resource) and calculates the speed that traffic is moving, then broadcasts that to traffic signs, GPS navigation systems, traffic warning systems, etc.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/02/calling-all-cars-measuring-traffic-using-cell-phone-data.ars This is a different one that uses the GPS in the cell phone.
You can post this in the comments area if you want to.
Ellen
My reply:
Thanks Ellen for your comments. I dont know if this example is popular in other countries, but in India, people were asked to text/SMS in if they were stuck in traffic by the FM stations. So, radio channels got free updates from “citizen journalists” about traffic situation. The text/SMS to the radio station actually costs 3 rupees instead of the regular 1 rupee or so per regular text/SMS. Very low-tech solution 🙂
Bala