I’ve been casually following updates over at NetSquared (“remixing the web for social change”) for a while but hadn’t really focussed on their Innovation Award, which is seeking projects that use the web to make a social impact. The 20 top projects selected by their readers will be invited to a conference in San Jose at the end of May, and a lucky few will receive funding from the NetSquared Technology Innovation Fund.
You can see the proposal list here and anyone who signs up to the site can join in the voting. The projects run the gamut of media awareness, geographical tools like Open Street Map, websites to help people make a difference “in 5 minutes a day” (an approach I have very mixed feelings about, as I think we have enough of such strategies and need to be looking for deeper integration), and a lot more.
My favourites tend to be those which are looking to build infrastructure for the rest of us to use, mainly because I’d love to have that there to play with. But regardless of which projects win it’s good to see such a range of approaches and goals, and the impact that “Web 2.0” tools are having in the non-profit world.