We want to see -- and share -- your story, and we don’t want to you run out of time! So we’ve extended the Net2 All-Star Invitational to next Saturday, December 10.

Last Saturday, I was honoured to participate in the Restart Romania Gala, the culminating event of the social justice challenge organized by TechSoup Romania in partnership with TechSoup Global and NetSquared. For us, it was the first regional challenge organized around locally specific issues and their citizen-powered solutions, so I was particularly excited to be present during the gala! You can learn more about the Challenge here.

This week we’re beginning a series of posts about the Restart Romania Social Justice Challenge -- a community engagement collaboration of NetSquared and TechSoup Romania. The Challenge offered participants the chance to share ideas and projects for using technology to bring about social change in Romania. This weekend, five of the ten finalist projects will be selected to receive a cash prize along with ongoing technical and marketing support to fully launch their platforms. 

With 3 billion people around the world living in extreme poverty, the need for a knowledge base that inspires and informs sustainable international development practitioners is clear. Enter WikiSCHAP, one of five winners in the FACT Social Justice Challenge in 2010.

The deadline for the One World New Media for Social Change Competition submission has been extended to the 31st of December 2010. To read more about the competition go to the Fundacja TechSoup website or check out the previous blog post concerning the topic.

We have already received some excellent submissions, but hope for even more organizations and individuals to participate, showing what they are doing and explain how their work is helping to make the world a better place.

The deadline for the New Media for Social Change competition almost here: December 20, 2010. Interested groups and individuals should read the Rules and Regulations and fill out the online submission form as soon as possible. If you have any questions or concerns that might keep you from submitting something, please feel free to contact One World immediately by writing Scott Hudson scott.hudson@oneworld.cz.

The French American Charitable Trust (FACT) Social Justice Challenge seeks to surface innovative Projects that leverage web and/or mobile technologies that foster collaboration around social justice issues.  The FACT Challenge's 90 innovative Projects were put to the community last week, the vote results selecting the 15 Featured Projects to receive development support and move on to the round of expert judges for final selection.

The French American Charitable Trust (FACT) Social Justice Challenge seeks to surface innovative Projects that leverage web and/or mobile technologies that foster collaboration around social justice issues.  The FACT Challenge's 90 innovative Projects were put to the community last week, the vote results selecting the 15 Featured Projects to receive development support and move on to the round of expert judges for final selection.

15 Featured Projects

With thousands of votes from the community, the 15 Featured Projects include, in alphabetical order:

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Community Vote this week for the FACT Social Justice Challenge! Voting is now closed. Your participation has narrowed the field of 90 innovatiove Project ideas down to the top 15 you think should be Featured Projects. 

All Projects will be notified on Monday and we will post on the blog and the FACT Challenge pages with the list of 15 Featured Projects moving on to the final round with the panel of judges.

If you have any questions about the FACT Challenge of the process, please do not hestitate to let us know: net2@techsoup.org

Thank you to everyone who has provided feedback so far regarding your experience voting and participating in the FACT Challenge!  As a community-driven organization, we rely on your input, ideas, and goals to define priorities and drive delopment of our work. We are always the first to admit that our platform isn't perfect; but we are actively working to improve it all the time.  It's Day 2 of the Community Vote for the FACT Challenge and I want to take a few minutes to share some of the feedback and suggestions we've received so far, as well as some updates about our methodology and work.

More ideas to share? You can contact us any time via email or share comments on this blog post!