We Have a Winner on the Logo Contest

I've just awarded the prize to EastSideDesigns.biz for his submission of logo #158 . Congrats! Thanks to everyone who talked with me or sent me messages about the designs they liked. It was really helpful to get some community feedback for this.

His logo won because of some very simple ideas that he came up with that lent themselves well to the site. One is the use of the bendy Y person in a previous design, and the use of the little smile in the winning design. Also the faded blast radius target element is really great for showing importance to things that are close to the user, without looking too much like a bullseye. I'll hopefully work with him to finalize the design into a finished logo for the site.

I'd like to thank the other designers that participated. In addition to giving credit to EastSideDesigns.biz on the final site for his logo, I'd also like to credit on the site some of the other designers for some great ideas, especially helio brazil, wired iris, pacmanb, netso, and year_ago_today. Some parts of them might be turned into icons on the site even though they are not in the logo.

Thanks to 99designs for a great site and service. I was really amazed at the number of submissions and the quality of the designer's work. It made it difficult to make a final decision, that's for sure!

Logo Contest Over - Decision Today

The logo contest is over for our new national site, Your Mapper. Take a look at the entries and let us know what you think here.

http://99designs.com/contests/7184

Although we have to pick just one, the final logo might incorporate some of the elements or colors of the other logos, so feel free to let us know how you would 'mix and match' things.

Contest: Design Our New Logo and Win $150!

A Crowdsource Design Site for a Crowdsource Mapping Site Logo

For the Your Mapper project, we decided to use an existing site to "crowdsource" the design of our logo. This means that we are starting up a paid contest to determine our logo. Anyone can contribute a design for free, everyone can vote for and comment on the designs, and to the winner goes $150 in cash!

Since our new site and service, Your Mapper, will be a community contribution data driven site, it's only fitting that we put our money where our mouth is an let the community decide on our new logo. We are using a site called 99Designs for the contest, since it has a great community of talented designers, and they've created some very interesting logos quickly.

Contest Link: http://99designs.com/contests/7184

We need the logo quickly, so the contest is only on for 3 days, and is over this Friday afternoon. For the next three days, people will be submitting designs and we will be commenting on and grading them along with the rest of the community. Everyone can build upon existing ideas and come up with something terrific.

I especially welcome everyone in the Louisville and Kentucky areas to submit their ideas, or at least vote and comment on what is submitted. And if you are outside the area, please participate as well - it's open to everyone.

To the contest winner we will give $150, credit on the new site, and a web link back to the designer's web page.

We see this as another great new media experiment (like our Twitter experiment) and hope that it works out for everyone. Get started now!

Twitter's Impact on the NetSquared Contest - $5 Well Spent

I believe that Twitter played a significant role in my success in NetSquared's mashup contest. For the uninitiated, Twitter is a micro-blogging tool that allows you to send out short messages to whoever wants to hear them. People the follow Metro Mapper on Twitter get updates on what I am doing on a professional and personal level, and have access to links and ideas that don't make it into this blog.

One way I got the word out about the contest was by using Twitter to post lots of announcements about the voting. And people who followed me on Twitter posted about the contest, which got their own group of users on the case.

NetSquared has not released the voting numbers, but based on the difficulty of the voting process, I wouldn't be surprised if I won with less than 200 votes total. Twitter is likely a large percentage of that number.

But the tipping point might have been Jason Fall's 2000th tweet about voting for Metro Mapper in the contest. He jokingly proposed pimping out his 2000th tweet for $5, and I took him up on the experiment!

Here's a list of all the ways I got the word out about the contest. Each method got some number of eyes on the contest, and each propagated the word, somewhat virally, to people outside of the initial contact method.

Email, Phone, or In Person:

• Friends
• Family
• Colleagues

Fully Digital Announcements:

• Metro Mapper site banners and contest page
• Metro Mapper blog posts
• Consuming Louisville post
• Forge Louisville posts
• Louisville History and Issues posts
• Traditional Press Release to local media
• Courier-Journal blurb
• Louisville.com page
  
• Facebook wall and status updates
  
• Metro Mapper Twitter followers

And, the only paid form of getting the word out, $5 to Jason Falls for his 2000th Tweet:

• Jason Fall's Twitter followers

Since Jason had about 700 followers, even if a only a small percentage voted, it would have made a big difference. He posted a detailed blog entry about the process, and sparked a great debate on the monetization of Twitter and the potential for paid advertising and sponsorship.

Thanks to the Twitter community for helping out Metro Mapper.

If you followed Jason or I on Twitter, and voted, please leave a short comment here so I can track and thank you. Jason's post generated a number of great comments.

I've also posted this same article on my NetSquared Project Blog so other projects can see the impact of Twitter and other ways I got the word out.

UPDATE: You Did It - Your Mapper is a N2Y3 Featured Project

To the people that use Metro Mapper and those who voted for the Your Mapper project in the NetSquared mashup contest:

You Did It - Thank You!

Thanks to your votes we were in the top 21 projects out of the 122 that were submitted.

NetSquared announced the winners today at noon EST in their N2Y3 contest, although the number of votes that each project received has not been revealed. This means that the expansion of Metro Mapper is going to happen.

Alphabetical List of Top Projects

We'll keep you posted on further developments. We'll be heading to San Jose for the conference May 27-28 to present our ideas in more detail. That's when funding and resources will be determined. From the site's FAQ:

Q: What kind of support will I get for my Project?
A: The NetSquared Team is busy recruiting Business Analysts, Product Managers, Business Mentors and Engineers to help Mashup Projects build a team that is capable of bringing your Mashup vision/concept/specification to life.

Thanks again to everyone cared enough and took the time to vote. We owe you a drink.

Post a comment below if you voted for us, with a link to your site or blog. We want to make sure you get some credit!

UPDATE: They just updated their blog with some more information:

The Featured Projects will be invited to attend this year’s NetSquared Conference (N2Y3) on May 27 and 28 (just after Memorial Day). The Conference will be held at Cisco Systems' Vineyard Conference Center in San Jose, California. Cisco Systems has been our generous host for the previous two NetSquared Conferences.

At the Conference, Project Teams will have an opportunity to display and discuss their mashups, and attendees will vote to select the top three. All 21 Projects at the conference will receive a share of $100,000 in prize money. The share will be determined by voting at the Conference.

Courier-Journal Points to Metro Mapper in Contest

Thanks to Charlie White at the Courier-Journal for mentioning the NetSquared contest in his Business People column, and for pointing people to the Metro Mapper voting ballot. A few people have mentioned they saw it in the Courier this past Saturday.

Article: www.courier-journal.com

Voting: www.metromapper.org/n2y3mashup.php

Final Day to Vote for Metro Mapper

Today is the final day of voting for Metro Mapper in the NetSquared contest (voting was extended through today). All votes must be submitted by 5pm, and if you haven't voted yet, please do so now.

I really appreciate the support I've gotten from you and other Louisville organizations, like Forge and Louisville.com. With your help, I feel very confident about ranking in the top 20!

1. Learn more and vote now: http://www.metromapper.org/n2y3mashup.php

2. Forward this link to your friends and colleagues.

NetSquared is going to announce the winners on Thursday, so I'll keep you posted.

Thanks so much!

Voting Support: Louisville.com, Forge Louisville, Consuming Louisville

I'd like to give thanks for some local websites that are covering my entry in the NetSquared mashup contest. Tomorrow is the last day to vote.

http://www.metromapper.org/n2y3mashup.php

Louisville.com

Thanks to Louisville.com, Louisville Magazine, and publisher Dan Crutcher for running an article liked to from their homepage.

Forge Louisville

Thanks to Forge Louisville for keeping people voting in the contest, Michelle Jones for doing a writeup, and Matt Winn for starting the terrific Forge organization.

Consuming Louisville

Thanks again to Michelle Jones at Consuming Louisville for alerting her readers to the mashup contest.

NetSquared Voting Extended Three Days

NetSquared has extended the voting deadline for all projects by three days, which means you can vote today, Friday March 21 through Monday March 24!

We can't do it without you, and we think the community can help us out and spread the word. It should take you about 5 minutes to help us out.

More Information:
www.metromapper.org/n2y3mashup.php

Our 'Your Mapper' Project Page:
www.netsquared.org/2008/conference/projects/your-mapper

Four Things You Can Do

1. Cast your own Vote!

2. Send out an email to your friends and family with a link to our more information page.

3. Mention the the contest on your own site or blog

4. Promote the contest on your site or blog with one of our badges

Vote for Metro Mapper in Final Round of NetSquared Competition

Metro Mapper made it to the final round of voting this week thanks to you! Last week, we ranked fifth out of 122 projects in "star" votes. If we can rank in the top 20 in votes this week, we are guaranteed a trip to San Jose to present our idea, and some human and financial resources.

We Need Your Help!

Visit the site, add us to your ballot, and cast your vote. We can't do it without you, and we think the community can help us out and spread the word.

More Information:
www.metromapper.org/n2y3mashup.php

Our 'Your Mapper' Project Page:
www.netsquared.org/2008/conference/projects/your-mapper

Four Things You Can Do

1. Cast your own Vote!

2. Send out an email to your friends and family with a link to our more information page.

3. Mention the the contest on your own site or blog

4. Promote the contest with one of our badges

Metro Mapper is looking to the community of Louisville and Kentucky, and to users of the site, to vote in this final round. Ranking in the contest would help Metro Mapper expand its services and launch a new, improved project called Your Mapper, which would allow community contributions and national coverage. Thanks a lot!

UPDATED: Metro Mapper Needs Your Help: Vote for Us!

Metro Mapper is trying to evolve into Your Mapper and needs your help to make it happen!

We are participating in a contest by Net Squared with the goal of "remixing the web for social change." The contest provides funding and resources for innovative projects that foster social change and empower individuals.

View all the information right on our site.

UPDATE:
We just discovered a *bug* in the site. If you are using Internet Explorer 7, and login to try to vote or "star" our project, you can't!

The [+] voting icon is not visible! So some of you are not crazy...

Until this is resolved with the site owners, see if you can use another alternate browser, like Firefox on a PC or Safari on a Mac, or Opera.

Firefox Browser Download

Thanks again and vote today, Friday, by 5pm if you can! It's the last day of the first round.

Metro Mapper needs your help now!

First, do this by Friday, March 14, 2008

1. Register for an account right now.
   


2. Wait for a confirmation email from Net Squared, and click the link. Check your spam folders too.
   


3. Visit our project and "Star" us by clicking the .
   


4. If you want, add some comments after the article.
   

Next, the week of March 17-21, 2008, vote for us.

1. Login to your account.
   


2. Vote for the Your Mapper project. You can vote for four to nine other projects too.
   

On Monday, March 24, they will announce the top 20 projects. If we are one of them, then we can proceed to the conference in San Jose to raise interest and get some funding and resources!

About the Project

Metro Mapper is a free service currently based in Louisville, KY. We have a set of tools that let us gather public information and put it on interactive maps, which you can see on our site.

But what we are missing is comminity contributions, data for other United States cities and rural areas, and the ability to show lots more information.

We want to become Your Mapper, a new site that has all of this and an empowered public. The Net Squared project would let us begin to do that. Read all about what we want to accomplish on our Project Page. Register now!