Tag Archives: webchallenge

TECHdotMN talks with Nerds & Nonprofits about upcoming Webchallenge

Nerds Nerds Mark and Eric along with Jan Hansen from Educate Tanzania sat down with the folks at TECHdotMN to talk about the Overnight Website Challenge.

In this short video Mark covers the history of the Webchallenge, Eric offers advice to web pros looking to participate, and Jan Hansen discusses the impact the new webchallenge-created website has had on her organization. Take a look.

Also, just a reminder, the application deadline for nonprofits & web pros is February 27th. Sign up today!

Apply yourself: Overnight Website Challenge returns March 24-25

Fellow Nerds and eager nonprofits have been asking, “When will registration be open for the Twin Cities’ 2012 Nerdery Overnight Overnight Website Challenge?” How about right now? Here.

As Luke Bucklin said in 2008 when we announced the second comingof our nonprofit nerdathon, “We are committed to this event as long as there are good nonprofits whose websites could be better, powered by nerds.”

That blanket-statement of commitment crossed state lines last summer at Chicago’s inaugural Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge, and March 24-25 will mark our fifth Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge in the Twin Cities. In the first five years of these nerdy deeds done dirt cheap, volunteers from The Nerdery and the interactive community at-large have donated about $2 million worth of professional services to 66 nonprofits. We’ll continue to consider this just a good start. Get started at http://tc2012.overnightwebsitechallenge.com.

For more the nitty-gritty lowdown and more information about this year’s event. Head on over to our News section.

$5 to keep a good-hearted nerd well caffienated

As you know our big Chicago Overnight Website Challenge is coming up August 20–21. But did you know you can help keep the kind, generous nerds who are donating 24 hours of their time to help build websites for needy nonprofits?

Well you can! Join Groupon’s G-Team and donate $5 to equip nerd volunteers with 24 hours of caffeine during the webchallenge. If G-Team members raise $250, 50 nerds taking part in the challenge will have enough caffeine to last them 24 hours. Each additional $5 raised will fund 24 hours of caffeine for another volunteer. All donations will be matched by The Nerdery.

For only $5 you can make sure that the nerds are deliriously awake enough for stuff like this (well, and the website building too, of course), and really isn’t that worth it?

What the heck is the G-Team? Here’s the deal: Unlike traditional Groupon deals, G-Team campaigns typically don’t offer you a “discount” or “savings.” So “buyer” beware—when you click “Buy” to donate your time or money to a worthwhile G-Team cause, the only discount you may receive is 100% off free, priceless karma.

Here’s the 10 Illinois’ nonprofits selected to participate in the Chicago Webchallenge

Today we announced the nonprofit organizations selected for the The Nerdery’s Chicago Overnight Website Challenge, debuting the weekend of August 20-21. The chosen nonprofits:

• A Safe Haven Foundation
• Crossroads Adoption Services
• Hemophilia Foundation of Illinois
• Institutio Del Progresso Latino
• Kids Have Hope
• Midwest Young Artists
• Near Northwest Arts Council
• Northwestern Settlement
• Peace Care
• Southwest Chicago Pads

These lucky nonprofits will receive nerdy deeds done dirt-cheap from these teams of volunteer web pros:

• A+ Team
• Awesome Dolphins and Friends
• Chamois Butter for Lunch
• Chicago on Rails
• Cloudbot (and Friends)
• Drop Shadows Not Bombs
• Drupal Rocks
• Greater Pixel Consortium
• Nerdery Bigfoot Research Consortium
• Team 13

Competing nonprofits articulated how they’d direct teams of 8-10 web pros to further their mission online. Selection judges also considered organizational need and online testimonials from people most intimately involved with the organizations. Comprised of leaders from the nonprofit and interactive communities, this independent panel of selection judges assessed applications from eligible nonprofits; they’ll also pick the top development team at The Nerdery’s all-nighter. Ladies and gentlemen, your judges:

• Melanie Adcock, assistant editor of The May Report and tech blogger
• Joshua Brown, Program Manager, Taproot Foundation
• Randy Dill, founder and CEO, Chicago Non-Profit
• Cynthia Putnam, Professor, College of Computing & Digital Media at DePaul University

You can learn more about the Chicago event over on the Webchallenge site.

Nerdy deeds via Chicago

This just handed to me:

Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge Coming to Chicago

Nonprofits and volunteer web pros (nerds) registering for 24-hour event Aug. 20-21. Charitable nerds have already donated $1.5 million in web services to 57  nonprofits.

Who: The Nerdery seeks like-minded web professionals to join in giving their time and talent to help nonprofits create websites they couldn’t otherwise afford at The Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge (http://chi2011.overnightwebsitechallenge.com/).

Who Else: Eligible nonprofits (501c3-registered organizations in Illinois) can apply by June 30 by articulating how nerds could help them do what they do – only better – online.

Why: Considering the collective good nonprofits do, losing sleep to help them is a wise investment – they pay it forward many times over by better serving our communities.

When: August 20-21, 2011; 9 a.m. Saturday – 9 a.m. Sunday

Where: Resolution Digital Studios (RDS), 2226 West Walnut Street, Chicago

How: Volunteer teams self-organize with at least eight and as many as 10 people – team captains recruit peers covering these skill sets: front-end development, back-end development, project management, strategy, UX, graphic design, copywriting and QA. Nonprofits apply by articulating their vision of how nerds could further their mission through better use of interactive technology. Fans of nonprofits post online testimonials on why the organization they support – or benefit from – should get a new website for the price of a good night’s sleep.

When else:

• July 15 – Nonprofit and volunteer registration deadline
• July 18 – Teams set
• July 25 – Announce chosen nonprofits

Who’s The Nerdery?: The Nerdery (www.nerdery.com) has offices in Chicago and Minneapolis where about 200 self-proclaimed nerds/web professionals partner with creative minds and big thinkers to envision and execute their interactive projects, including websites, mobile apps and social media. During the first four years of the Twin Cities’ annual Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge, volunteers have freely given more than $1.5 million in professional web development services to 57 nonprofits. Ranked #1 on Biz Journal’s 2010 Best Places to Work list, The Nerdery considers this a good start as they bring their nerdy deeds to Chicago.

Who Else: Sponsors include: Chipotle, Groupon, Peace Coffee, RDS. The Nerdery welcomes likeminded companies as event sponsors and in-kind supporters; to help feed and caffeinate this nonprofit nerdathon, email info@overnightwebsitechallenge.com or call 877-OMG-NERD.

See/Believe:

The Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge: An Overview from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

Media contact: Mark Malmberg, 612-850-3178, mark.malmberg@nerdery.com

VISI visits the Webchallenge & many secrets are revealed

The team at VISI has a nice post up about their visit to the webchallenge a few weeks ago. While they were there, they talked to a member of each of the web pro teams and asked about the nonprofit they were working with. They’ve posted three videos (the blooper reel is pretty funny), but I’ve only stolen one.

Why? Because in this video you can learn about CEO/Co-President Mike Derheim‘s favorite StarWars character, and it features a staffer from the UofM Continuing Education building whose been working the webchallenge for four years. How awesome is that?

Thanks, y’all – best Web Challenge ever (or until next time)

Nerds, judges, nonprofits, well-wishers, sponsors, event-staff volunteers, caffeine…thanks for playing your part in enabling about half-a-million dollars worth of professional web development services to be freely given 18 nonprofits who’ll pay it forward many times over in services delivered to their communities. Blanket statements of thanks are warm and fuzzy, but they don’t sufficiently cover all who helped make the 2011 Twin Cities Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge the best ever. Time to name names.

Thanks, Senator Al Franken, for your gracious and good-humored visit. Thanks also to Tron Guy for likewise fitting right in.

We can’t sufficiently thank sponsors Benchmark Learning, TST Media and VISI for stepping up to support this event and its participants in their own meaningful ways. Benchmark Learning will again donate training to nonprofits and hosted our pre-Challenge speed-dating mixer. As they have since year one, VISI offered each nonprofit a year of free web hosting.TST Media, along with winning, donated NGIN, it’s proprietary suite of online tools, and lifetime support to Bloomington United for Youth.

Our in-kind supporters were plentiful and indeed kind, and we thank: Arthouse; Celarity, Chowgirls; CleverKate; CobornsDelivers; Ergotron; Gyropolis; HalloweenCostumes.com: Izzy’s Ice Cream Cafe; Jimmy Johns; Kowalski’s; La Belle Crepe; The Lacek Group; Northern Brewer; Peace Coffee; Pizza Luce’; Q.Cumbers; Solspace; ThinkGeek; Adam Turman; Unwind Within Massage; 1Password.

Big thanks to Nerdery founders Mike Derheim and Mike Schmidt for leading the kind of company where Mark Hurlburt’s mad-enough-to-work idea for a nonprofit nerdathon is embraced by all who work/play at The Nerdery. Beyond the dev team vols, plenty of other Nerdery staffers and friends came and stayed and helped keep things running: Jessica Mogen, Matt Tonak, Jodi Chromey, Dave Kam, Dave Bucklin, Karsten Lundquist, Mike Johnson, Anand Gona, Ericka Kimball, Max Kimball, Jaycie Kimball, Ben Kimball, Kaya Davis, Will Rees, Terri Dahlberg, Ginger Sorvari Bucklin, Larry Bucklin, Mary Ann Bucklin, Kai Esbensen, Annette Johnson, Eric Myers, Chelsea Mars, John Mathiassen, Jaeson Welch, Jim Grant, Brendan Beckham, Chelsey Mona, Hilary Heinz, Cassi Hanson, John O’Neill, Sean Latterner, Caleb Newby, Katie O’Neill, Matt Pacyga, Eve Poeschl, Ali Karbassi, Angela Norlen, Nick Teitz, John Shimek, Mike and Stephanie Woods, Jamie Lindquist, Greg Wurm, Bill Brakeman, Mike Derheim and Amanda Derheim, Mike and Heidi Schmidt, John Krenz, Gillian Reynolds, Ryan Kucera, Phillip Brand, Tom O’Neill, Mitch Buckland, Robert Savian, Tor Swanson, Sheryl Rosati and Amanda Anderson.

For letting us again rock-star their fine facility, we thank our hosts at the U of M Continuing Education Conference Center us, with particular thanks to Ken Gay, Mike Wybierala, Leslie Berry and Wendy Hanson.

Thanks again and again to the judges who picked 18 nonprofits from a pool of 46, and assessed the work of 18 development teams:

• Christine Durand, communication director, Minnesota Council of Nonprofits
• Christian Erickson, partner, Zeus Jones
• Dan Grigsby, founder, Drivertrain
• Dana Nelson, executive director, GiveMN.org

A very special thank you goes out to anyone I may have fool-heartedly forgotten. C’mere, you…

Suffering from Webchallenge withdrawal? Get a fix

If you’re like us, you’ve just managed to sleep off the webchallenge and already miss it. We’ve gathered a few links from around the web to give you a quick fix to help stave off webchallenge withdrawals. Got a link to share? Let us know and we’ll add you to the list!

• KSTP stopped by the Overnight Website Challnge Sunday morning
• Right now there are about 615 photos in the The Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge Group on Flickr. Add yours today!
• A nice shout out on the MPR News Cut Blog (see item #3).
• Check out the videos on Vimeo.
• Minnov8 stopped by to podcast the webchallenge.
• Take a look at all the pics from the Nerderizer 5000 Photo Booth and Like your favorites.
• Tech.MN has a great post with videos and photos from the event.
• Mitchell Hislop writes about the challenge and working with his team’s nonprofit, Project 515.

Judging TST dynamite

Recognizing the winner of The Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge takes time, fittingly. No team lost anything but sleep while 18 nonprofit organizations won free websites that will better carry their mission forward. Judges were charged with naming one team that made the most transformational difference for their designated nonprofit, and they reached consensus on TST Media for their work for Bloomington United for Youth (BUY). Feast your eyes on this fabulous freebie.

The 18 teams of volunteer web pros are obvious heroes – all of them. The unsung heroes are these judges:

• Christine Durand, communication director, Minnesota Council of Nonprofits
• Christian Erickson, principal, Zeus Jones
• Dan Grigsby, founder, Drivetrain
• Dana Nelson, executive director, GiveMN.org

Judging our nonprofit nerdathon can be a thankless task, but not today. We thank our judges for their time and wisdom in first selecting 18 nonprofits from a pool of 46 eligible applicants, and then today, for turning their attention to their designated volunteer web development teams as the 24-hour countdown mercifully expired. Great work, everyone, thanks – good night.

Dead line for the webchallenge? Blue Gorilla Don’t Care