A little geekiness lurks within all of us, some more than others (like the dude who can recite 100 decimal places of pi or this guy), so we’ve been working with Market United and iiNet on a competition to separate the geeks from the nerds and find the country’s Top Geek.

How it works

Casting [now - 14 Jan]

It’s an open call for geeks and people can submit themselves or nominate a friend. Participants then need to rally support for their entry by getting people to vouch for their geekiness by seconding their nomination.

Selection [15 Jan - 30 Jan]

The 5 entries that rallied the most support automatically advance to the finals and iiNet selects the remaining finalists (they know a good geek when they see one!).

Finals [31 Jan - 28 Feb]

It’s a geek showdown where the finalists complete challenges, upload videos and rally support in a points race to become Top Geek.

The lucky[ish?] guy or gal named Top Geek wins an all expenses paid trip to the geek conference of his or her choice [SxSW, Comic-con, PAX or CES] – as well as some serious bragging rights.

Enter here.

My Kitchen Sucks!, an IKEA campaign we’ve been working on with Market United launched earlier this week:

Shoddy, dated or just not functional — tell us why your kitchen sucks and you could win an IKEA kitchen to the value of $10,000.

With my partiality duly noted, I’m still gonna say that this campaign is pretty damn awesome.

South Australians and West Australians simply own up to their avocado green appliances, stained and kettle-burned laminate countertops and harvest gold linoleum tiles for the chance to win a brand new $10,000 IKEA kitchen (one to be awarded in each state). Voting is open to the public, and entrants can earn extra points by uploading evidence (photos and floor plans) and by publicly shaming themselves (sharing their entry on Facebook, Twitter and email).

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I was indulging in one of my favourite lunchtime pastimes today – checking out websites which have won awards. Today’s site, Waterlife, was courtesy of the SXSW 2010 Web Awards.

Waterlife won the award for the Activism category, a sector I find seriously interesting for two reasons. Firstly, I am fascinated by the web’s ability to instill and express emotion, which any good activism website will do, and figuring out how they achieve that heart warming, skin tingling effect. Secondly, the idea a website can change the course of history by making people DO something about political or ethical concerns is simply awesome.

Considering Waterlife is raising awareness of the challenges The Great Lakes is facing in the States, a far cry from the streets of Freo, Western Australia, where I live, it surprised me to feel a lump in my throat as I surfed around the site. How did they achieve it?

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