Thank you for your support in the Net2 Mashup Challenge!

NetSquared (Net2) announced the top 21 projects voted to participate in this year’s NetSquared Conference (N2Y3), and we are thrilled to be selected among a group of terrific projects!

In the coming weeks, we will be hard at work to more of our ideas to reality with the support of Net2. N2Y3 will be held on May 27 and 28 at Cisco Systems Vineyard Conference Center in San Jose, California. At the conference, we’ll be displaying and discussing Greener One with attendees, who will be voting for the Top 3 projects. All Projects will receive a portion of $100,000 prize money, with the amount determined by votes at the conference. You can find additional information and a list of all competing projects on the Net2 web site: http://www.netsquared.org/blog/britt-bravo/announcing-netsquared-mashup-challenge-21-featured-projects

Please wish us well, and stay tuned for more updates!

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Update! Net2 Mashup Challenge Voting Extended to March 24!

NetSquared (Net2) has extended voting on projects for the 2008 Mashup Challenge! The new deadline is 5:00 P.M. Pacific time on Monday, March 24.

If you haven’t already cast your vote, you still have time! Please visit http://www.greenerone.com/vote for more details.

And to those of you who have voted for Greener One, thank you so much for your support!

Sifting through green marketing claims: a reason to vote for Greener One in the Net2 Mashup Challenge

The more I educate myself about the green movement and green marketing, the more I find myself paying scrupulous attention to clues on product packaging. Case in point: I was recently surprised to see that Trader Joe’s toilet paper is greener than a popular green brand, Green Forest, at least as described on its package.

Green Forest toilet paper depicts a nice tree on the package, and points out that it is made from “at least 40% post-consumer recycled content.” It also says that the company does not use chlorine bleaching in making the product. Don’t get me wrong: these are good things and I would have been happy to use Green Forest even though I found it a bit on the thin side in actual use.

Trader Joe’s also has a nice green image on its package, including mountains and trees. Trader Joe’s, however, puts forth numerous green claims on its package, including:

• It is made from 100% recycled material, 80% of which is post consumer content
• No chlorine bleaching was used in making the product
• The plastic wrapper “has a predetermined life span and will expire in 18 months after the manufactured date”

Comparatively, then, it seems that Trader Joe’s toilet paper is greener. And, bonus! It actually is pretty good toilet paper too. But would you know this unless you were in a store that sold both brands and each package with care? Probably not!

This confirmed again why I’m excited about our work on Greener One, bringing environmental comparisons to consumers so they can see which products are better at a quick glance.

If you think this kind of transparency is important, and you also think that getting this kind of information to consumers in an easy-to-understand way is also important, I ask you to take a few minutes to support Greener One in the Net2 Mashup Challenge.

What’s Net2, what’s a mashup, and what’s this challenge all about? Well Net2, or NetSquared, is a group that supports non-profits and organizations that are working for social change, helping them to bring their ideas to fruition. A mashup is simply combining data from more than one source to make it more meaningful. And the Mashup Challenge? This is a competition put together by Net2 to help push the Top 20 projects involved in the contest to the next level.

Voting has just started to select the Top 20 projects, and Greener One would be delighted to have your vote. To help keep things fair, Net2 requires that you vote for at least 5 projects (up to 10), and I’m happy to report that we are in some fantastic company in this contest.

Here’s the quick rundown on how to vote:

1. Register at http://www.netsquared.org/user/register (you need to get an email with your password and then log in after the registration to be able to vote).
2. Click “Projects” on the top.
3. Find Greener One and click on it to go into the detailed description and click “Vote for My Mashup.”
4. Vote for at least 4 other projects that resonate with you.
5. Once you’ve selected the minimum of 5 projects you need, cast your ballot here: http://www.netsquared.org/projects/vote/ballot

The deadline to vote is 5:00 p.m. Pacific time on March 21.

Thank you very much for your support!

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