This year the Web 2.0 Summit conference (5-7 Nov) is hosting an auction to benefit a few innovative organizations that are solving big problems.
To show our support for this initiative, ReadWriteWeb is running a competition in this post. We have 2 full conference passes to give away to the New York Web 2.0 Expo 16-19 Sept (value over $1000 each), as well as a free Expo hall pass (value $100).
At the last Web 2.0 Expo conference in San Francisco in April, Tim O’Reilly made a keynote speech that resonated with me and many others. He encouraged the audience to “not follow the headlines” and the hot consumer apps, but go after “big, hard problems”. The Summit auction taps into this need.
According to a press release, the Web 2.0 Summit team “will solicit donations, and donation ideas, from individuals and companies within the community and then choose the 10 most promising and unique offerings to auction after the conference dinner.” They’ve already lined up Tour de France legend Lance Armstrong, who will donate an autographed bicycle.
All proceeds from the event will benefit three charities, including WITNESS.org, which “uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations.” You can suggest other worthwhile charities on this Facebook page. Also head over to the Summit website to find out more.
We think the auction is well worth supporting, as it fits within ReadWriteWeb’s ongoing quest to find ‘real world’ uses for Web technologies. We’d love to see the Web being put to more use outside of the early adopter groups.
To be in to win one of the 3 prizes, we want to know: what would YOU bid on that web celebrities could offer? The 3 best answers, subjectively chosen by the RWW team, will win the prizes. Tip: both humorous and serious suggestions are welcome 🙂 Put your entry into the comments below. You’ll need to enter your email address, so we know how to contact you, but this isn’t published. We’ll announce the winners by end of this week.
