March 6, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
In the world of Web 2.0, a mashup is an Internet site or service that combines data from more than one source.
TechSoup.org is challenging nonprofit groups to think about ways they could combine information from multiple sources to raise awareness for a social cause — and offering $100,000 in prize money for the winning entries.
The San Francisco technology organization will be accepting submissions for the NetSquared Mashup Challenge through March 14. The following week, visitors to the NetSquared Web site will vote for their favorite ideas. The organization will pair the top 20 finalists with technology volunteers who will translate the ideas into reality.
The 20 teams will present their projects at the third annual NetSquared Conference, which is scheduled for May 27-28 at Cisco Systems’ Vineyard Conference Center in San Jose, Calif. Voters at the meeting will determine the finalists’ share in the $100,000 prize money.
CorpWatch, an Oakland, Calif., organization that tracks and publicizes corporate misdeeds, was the first to submit an idea. The group proposed a project that would bring together information from government agencies to show the parent-subsidiary and supply-chain relationships between different companies.
Other ideas include a project that will create a map showing annual arms sales between nations, and a system that would allow people to post from their mobile phones unwanted items they would like to give away to the Freecycle Web site.
For more information: Go to http://www.netsquared.org/mashup.
