It’s true: Today, Friday, is the last day to cast your vote for up to 5 favorite USAID project submissions.  Get out the vote, now!

The Word on the Street…

Project teams and others are telling their friends, families, colleagues and communities about the vote, hoping to make it to the next round where 15 projects will be presented to the USAID judges.  If you want to learn more about projects than what is provided in the Project Gallery, check out the Community Blog where projects are discussing their ideas and asking for your support.

Oliver Subasinghe recently told the devex community about the USAID Challenge and check out this testimonial from quazi on the community blog:

Learning about various projects through the USAID Development 2.0 Challenge

I am glad that I voted for 5 projets posted here on NetSquared. What I liked most is that I now will have access to ideas as I prepare to use social web technologies to advance our cause for leadership development in Bangladesh, especially for the youth.

Get out the Vote!

This is the last day to help select the 15 projects moving on in the Challenge. Cast your vote now!

The voting process is simple, interactive and fun. It’s our goal to be as inclusive as possible because it’s your job to pick the projects that best deserve the time, attention, and funding that this Challenge can offer.

How to vote:

• You must Register and Login to the NetSquared site to participate in the Vote (please check your junk mail folder if you do not see a registration email confirmation)
• Each registered user has one (1) ballot
• You must vote for at least three (3) Projects and no more than five (5)
• All votes are weighted equally (in other words, your first choice and fifth choice have equal value)
• You can only vote for each Project once, yes that includes your own
• You must review and cast your ballot for your vote to count (details below)

Share your feedback, ideas, or favorites on the Community Blog after you’ve voted!

Going Postal

A tool to help people take control of junk mail: Going Postal aims both to stop junk reaching your letter box, as well as offering companies alternative ways to get their advertising out – which is good news for the trees that are used to produce the 550,000 tonnes of paper wasted on unsolicited mail in the UK each year.

Useful Visitors

What if travelers brought more than cash to the countries they visited? You could harness the skills, talent and knowledge of those visiting other countries – whether they’re on business, visiting relatives or simply tourists. Via the web, universities could find visiting professors, hospitals could find visiting nurses, feeding centres could meet five star chefs and Joe the plumber can fix the drains in an orphanage. It’s a new approach both to international volunteering, as well as tackling the brain drain many countries are suffering as they loose talent and skills to migration.

AccessCity

The rush hour’s bad enough for those who have only a bag and umbrella to carry around. But how do you negotiate a city’s transport system when you’re not able to keep up with the commuter scrum? AccessCity aims to develop a site to enable a user-generated view of London (in the first instance, but with the ability to be rolled out nationally and beyond) from an accessibility perspective: helping those who are less able to get around – due to physical disabilities or impairments, or if they need to take children with them – and highlighting what needs to be improved to make simple journeys less of a hassle.

Visualising Community Need

There’s been increasing emphasis on how you give users themselves greater control over the social care they receive in recent years – it’s a huge social and political issue. Visualising Community Need is a project to help people map their own care requirements and use this information to get care providers to better understand the needs of those they are supposed to be serving – turning the system of social care on its head.

Good Gym

People all over Britain run, jog and lift weights. The Good Gym aims to make it easy for people to channel this energy toward social good. The idea is to get fitness fanatics to incorporate visits to isolated older people or the delivery of useful items to dependent individuals into their exercise routines.

Vegsy

Etsy, but for vegetables. This idea uses an online market place to bring together people who grow food in their home, allotment, small holding or farm with people who want to buy locally produced, natural, wholesome foods – just like Etsy has done with handmade craft goods. So there’s less air miles in our food and we know exactly what we’re eating and where it’s coming from.

But there is even more! The judges couldn’t decide between four more ideas so you can help decide!  The voting ends at midnight Sunday night, so check them out and vote now!

Learn more about Social Innovation Camp and the weekend ‘conference’ on 5 – 7 December here.

What do you think about the ideas selected?  Do you have ways to help?