this is awesome, the idea behind it. i totally want to get my nonprofit to try for this grant. as i explained to the relevant peeps at my work:
Here are past successful winners of the award:
Maplight.org, a winning NetSquared project from last year, displays the link between money and politics by bringing together information about campaign contributions and legislative votes.
ChicagoCrimes.org is a browsable database of crimes in Chicago that lets users see information displayed on a map.
ActiveTrails shows visitors a list of active hiking and biking trails across the United States. Users play a big role in supplying information.
Tunisian Prison Map pulls from a variety of sources to locate the prisons on a map and links to videos and other information relating to the prisons.
They’re not asking you to actually create this, so don’t worry. They just want ideas. What they want is a progressive idea for using various technologies together for social change. Or, to put it another way: Can you imagine a way to combine data from more than one source into an integrated tool that would increase awareness around an issue?
If you come up with a great idea, and they like how you describe it on your application, meaning, you’re one of the 20 winners, they will pull the talent together to make your idea a reality. It’s not the money or grant that’s important, it’s the fact that we could come up with our dream idea, meaning, some awesome online tool we’ve always wanted to help our case, but we’ve never had the resources to do. If we come up with something truly dynamic and far-reaching, they will make that idea happen, and we will reap the benefits ten-fold, both in publicity as well as actual use of the tool.
Read more about it: N2Y3 Mashup Challenge
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I’m with the NetSquared team. Thanks for spreading the Mashup Challenge word.
A couple of quick things:
* it’s not up to us to like the challenge! The selection process is a community vote — not us on the inside so engaging early, getting feedback, and changing your application is helpful (and a built in part of the process).
* we are committed to everyone getting — at minimum — feedback on their idea. More, we hope to engage developers with all the ideas — not just the top 20.
Thanks again.
Hi there,
I saw that you were writing about the Netsquared Mashup challenge and I wanted to share a little bit about our Mashup Challenge entry: Assetmap.org/uganda. You can read more at http://www.assetmap.org/uganda
The question behind the project is this: with peace on the horizon after 20 years of war in northern Uganda, and the big NGOs soon heading off to other war zones, who is going to support community organizations and northern Ugandan civil society as it transitions to peace time?
By mapping information about ongoing community-led philanthropic partnerships in northern Uganda, assetmap.org/uganda helps American citizens aggregate their resources to support post-conflict transformation.
We hope to facilitate collaboration among American donors and volunteers by providing a digital tool that:
•maps project locations so you know who’s working where
•tags information about the specific issues projects and organizations seek to address
•links tagged and mapped projects to the facebook and LinkedIn profiles of participating donors or volunteers
If you’re interested in supporting us, please visit and vote for us here:
http://www.netsquared.org/2008/conference/projects/assetmap-org-uganda
Thanks!
Nathaniel Whittemore
Director, Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement
http://www.mycge.org
globalengagement at gmail