I apologize for just posting this now and being pretty much the last person interested in this contest to post it up to their blog but, well, here it is. The folks at Sunlight Labs, in partnership with Google, O’Reilly Media, Craig Newmark, Gov2.0 Expo Showcase and TechWeb are hosting a contest based around the newly implemented US Federal website Data.gov.

The contest is looking to build greater transparency in government along with creating really useful applications. There are cash prizes associated with the contest ($10k for 1st prize!) so that adds to the incentive.

If you have a good idea for how to remix the data now available on Data.gov then you should put it to even better use by entering this contest – or you could give it to me and I’ll enter it.

Check out all the information here: http://sunlightlabs.com/contests/appsforamerica2/

UPDATE: SEE HTTP://ELEPHANTSONBICYCLES.COM FOR WINNER.

I’m curious about what kind of day to day readership I’m getting and where it comes from. I can look at web stats, etc. but those don’t tell me much. I want to know how I am actually connecting with people and what you like/dislike.

A couple days ago I set up a Skreened Shop (it’s free, dead simple and anyone can do it) http://skreened.com/eob which has a couple blog related designs. I’ve sold a couple shirts already which is totally cool but what’s better is Skreened hooked me up with one excellent gift card.

So, how would you like to win this $20 gift card to Skreened?

You would! Alright then, all you need to do is comment below with the following information:

• How’d you find this post (direct, CU, twitter, facebook, etc)?
• Where in the world do you live, approximately?
• What do you like or dislike me writing about?
• Have you checked out Skreened.com yet?
• Anything else? Constructive criticism?

Cool, that’s it. I’m going to leave this open till Saturday January 11, 2009. This post is also going up on my http://elephantsonbicycles.com site so if you want another chance to win pop over there and have a look around. I’ll assign a number to each completed comment and draw one out of a hat; you’ll get an email from me if you win and I’ll post about it.