Netsquared Innovation Award: Accelerating Projects for Social Change

The first year of NetSquared brought together funders, technology assistance providers, software developers, and collaborators to talk about the ways the social web can be used in mission-based organizations. This year, we are moving from conversation to action. TechSoup's NetSquared Project seeks 20 great projects that utilize the technologies, tools and communities of the social web to create societal impact in a sustainable fashion. We will host representatives from the selected projects May 29 & May 30 at Cisco's Vineyard Conference center in San Jose, CA for the second annual NetSquared conference and the first NetSquared Technology Innovation Fund awards.

The excitement about the social potential of new tools sometimes obscures this simple reality.

We built the NetSquared Technology Innovation Fund (NTIF), with donations from generous companies and organizations, to make sure some of the financial needs of NetSquared's Featured Projects are addressed head-on at the Conference.

By vote of the Conference participants , $100,000 will be allocated to NetSquared Featured Projects. The allocation format is: $25,000, $15,000 and $10,000 for the top three projects, respectively. The other 18 projects will split the remainder of the funds at approximately $2,777 each.

A big "Thank You" goes out to all of our NTIF contributors.

Interested in learning more about the NetSquared Innovation Fund? Contact net2partner@techsoup.org

Interested in learning about ways people are contributing technical and strategic skills to support innovative projects? Check out the Innovator Support Network.

Finding the Best Projects

We will select the 20 projects via an open nomination and voting process. Nominations will be accepted from March 5th through April 6th. Voting will be held April 9th - 14th, 2007. The top 20 vote getters will receive an all-expense paid invitation to NetSquared Conference for two project representatives.

Any registered NetSquared community member (and it's easy to sign up if you're new to this site) can nominate a project. The nomination form is here. You can also browse all nominated projects here. It's okay to nominate a project you are working on.

Eligible Projects

The NetSquared Featured Projects is a global competition that is open to both nonprofit and private sector submissions. We seek nominations of projects that can demonstrate the following attributes (though we understand that different projects will have different emphases and strengths):

• Use the power of community and social networks to create change
• Use existing, or newly developed technology tools for social impact
• Have a plausible financial model
• Have a clear way to measure success
• Exhibit extraordinary leadership, passion and resourcefulness
• Exhibit a passion for social change

Rules, Deadlines and Procedures

Nominations will be accepted until Friday, April 6th, 2007 at noon, U.S. PST.

At any time before this period, project participants are encouraged to refine proposals based on community feedback, project advisors, Netsquared Advisors, etc. We encourage project applicants to create a Netsquared Blog, participate or organize a Net Tuesday, and spread the word about your project to your friends and family.

There are four phases in the competition:

1. April 9th- April 14th. Nominated projects will be voted upon by the NetSquared Community
2. Between April 14th and April 16th, the NetSquared staff will review the Community's choices with the Advocates. We reserve the right to amend the results of the vote for good reason--e.g. to ensure diversity or to counter 'gaming' of the process--but only with the advice and consent of the Advocates, and in a transparent fashion.
3. April 16th, we will name 20 projects as NetSquared Featured Projects, 2007.
4. The top 20 vote getters will receive an all-expense paid invitation to NetSquared Conference for two project representatives.

Disclaimer / Compliance with Legal Restrictions

NetSquared complies fully with all U.S. laws and regulations, including Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations, export control, and anti-money laundering laws. All grants will be awarded subject to compliance with such laws. Netsquared will not make any grant if it finds that to do so would be unlawful. This may prohibit awards in certain countries and/or to certain individuals or entities. All recipients will comply with these laws to the extent they are applicable to such recipients. No recipient will take any action that would cause Netsquared or TechSoup to violate any laws.

For more information about the project submission process, please contact Billy Bicket at billy@compumentor.org