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Volume
II
Issue 11 March 2000 |
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The ArsDigita Prize: Up to $10,000 in Seed Money Plus a Greenhouse for Teenaged Web Developers Research by Kim Billingsley If you are (or know) a web developer 18 years old or younger, check this out: From the ArsDigita Foundation, of Cambridge, MA, comes its second annual international website design competition. Also affiliated with MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA), this competition offers a $ 10,000 first prize. In addition, the winner and all finalists receive opportunities to meet with some of MIT's most august Internet innovators; access to a high-end professional web server for the winners' future projects; and free instruction on software engineering for web applications. The purpose of the competition is to reward young Internet developers of noncommercial, visually simple, effective websites with a track record of real-world use. According to the competition's published Rationale, "we focus on young people doing non-commercial stuff because we think (1) they will make the best use of the money, (2) they will live long enough to change the world through their direct efforts." The contest is limited to people aged 18 or younger as of 1 March 2000. Applications are welcomed from young people around the world, but the submitted site must be understandable by someone who only knows English. Edward Tufte, the renowned authority on visual design, is in charge of the judging, with assistance from ArsDigita and MIT "web nerds." Applications are being accepted now. The deadline is 15 May 2000. Two weeks later, on 1 June, during an all-expenses-paid trip to Boston, the finalists will be identified (last year there were seven first runners-up and one prize winner). At a lunch for all finalists later in June at MIT, the $ 10,000 prize is awarded, and the other finalists, as first runners-up, each receive a check for $ 1,000. The second runners-up (there can be many) receive copies of Mr. Tufte's Visual Explanations, and Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing by Philip Greenspun. What this all
means: This is a truly significant opportunity for people born on or
after 2 March 1981. Meeting some of the world's top Internet
pioneers and designers on their home turf - and learning from them -
can provide a huge boost to a young innovator's development. This
contest is the best kind of "greenhouse" environment.
The ArsDigita Foundation website can be found at http://www.arsdigita.org The Foundation receives its funding from the ArsDigita Corporation, a developer of Internet applications, based on open-source code, for corporate clients. The corporate website is http://www.arsdigita.com Look for the entire Rationale, plenty of explanatory material, and the rules for this contest at http://www.arsdigita.org/prize/ The site also links to last year's prize-winning site, and to other interesting sources of information and opinion.
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