UPDATE: After additional eligibility verification per the Rules and Guidelines previously published at the outset of the USAID Challenge, the final Top 15 Projects have been determined.

All winning projects will receive notification directly from NetSquared about specific next steps. Thank you for your patience and ongoing support in this process.  

The NetSquared Team

We started last week with 115 projects in the USAID Development 2.0 Challenge and the NetSquared Community, after thousands of votes, narrowed that list down to the 15 projects who will move on as Featured Projects. Thanks to all who participated and voted - your collective voice has been heard loud and clear! We are really excited to announce:

The 15 Featured Projects:

• Agrotext in Kenya
• Child Malnutrition Surveillance and Famine Response
• ClickDiagnostics: A Micro-Entrepreneurship Based Model to Transform Healthcare Delivery through Mobile Telemedicine
• FloodSMS Early Detection and Warning of Catastrophic Flooding via SMS
• Freecycle.org Global Smartphone/SMS Gift Economy
• Frogtek: mobile business solutions for micro-entrepreneurs
• HarassMap - Reporting & Mapping Sexual Harassment on the Streets via SMS
• Job creation, income generation, and affordable lighting through "micro-solar" products
• MIDA - Medical In-field Diagnostic Assistant
• Mobilizing Medical Records in Resource Poor Settings
• Out-of-Poverty Coordination Games
• QuestionBox - Democratizing Information and News for the Illiterate, Poor and Unconnected
• RESDIDA: Mobile Content Distribution Platform to Scale Organizations' Reach to Poor Communities
• Solar powered, evaporative refrigerators for remote storage of biologics
• Ushahidi v2 - Mobile.Crisis.Reporting

What's Next

Featured Project Interviews We will be showcasing interviews with the 15 Featured Projects daily over the next few weeks to give you a deeper look at the projects and more ideas about mobile technology innovation. Project Gallery You can still provide feedback, ask questions, and connect with projects (whether they are one of the 15 Featured Projects, or not) in the Project Gallery. Final 3 Selection USAID judges will be reviewing the 15 Featured Projects and selecting the Final 3. You can read the judging criteria on the Net2 site for information about what the judges are looking for. The Final 3 projects will be invited to present in Washington DC at the Awards Ceremony on January 8th at the Newseum. The Final 3 will also be announced here to the NetSquared Community.

Thanks!

Thanks again to all those who submitted projects, commented in the Project Gallery, starred favorite projects, and the thousands who voted last week. We couldn't have come up with such innovative and powerful ideas for mobile technology ourselves and we certainly needed your help deciding between all the submissions. You'll have a chance to do more in the upcoming challenges, including N2Y4: you can check out the Challenges page for details as they become available, but we'll always announce opportunities here on the blog. Thanks again; and a big CONGRATS to the 15 Featured Projects!