ReadWriteWeb

Last week we ran a contest giving away 3 tickets to the Web 2.0 Expo conference in San Francisco next week, worth $1,500 each. To enter, all you had to do was define Web 3.0. We got a lot of awesome definitions and it was extremely tough to pick out 3 winners. About 15 entries made my initial short list, from which point the Read/WriteWeb authors (there are 14 of us in total now) gave their feedback. After all that, we came up with 3 winners - 1 'serious' definition, 1 humorous one, and thirdly "The Editor's Choice". We've also listed 3 runners-up, in case any of the 3 first choices can't make it to the conference. 

The winning entries:

The 'Humorous' definition winner: Josh, for comment #23 'Web 3.0 will complete my sentences'

"Web 3.0 will complete my sentences. It will think ahead of me. In a sense, it will think for me. For example, if I write "I like..." a web 3.0 app will complete my sentence with "...big butts and I cannot lie."

I don't know if it is earth shattering, but it helps me be more efficient."

The 'Serious' definition winner: Robert O'Brien, for comment #42 'Web 3.0 – a decentralized asynchronous me'

"Web 1.0 – Centralised Them.
Web 2.0 – Distributed Us.
Web 3.0 – Decentralised Me

Read/WriteWeb has 3 passes to Web 2.0 Expo to give away, same as Techcrunch. I have to admit Mr Arrington came up with a pretty cunning means to give away their 3 passes - he's asking for readers to "attack any post published on TechCrunch". This will not only give him constructive feedback, but will increase page views too (as people rifle through the TC archives) ;-)

Well I am not brave enough to ask for people to trash R/WW posts, so I am going to settle for asking you to (ahem) define Web 3.0. C'mon, I know you want to... The 3 most creative and/or witty definitions for Web 3.0 will win a free pass to Web 2.0 Expo, valued at $1,500 each. Put your definition in the comments below - it can be just one line, or more if you like. I'll select the winners Tuesday afternoon PST next week (nb: if you can't make it to the conference, but want to enter anyway, please note that in your comment).

We had a great response to the ETech Caption Contest, with the winner receiving a free ticket to O'Reilly's Emerging Technology conference next week - March 26-29, in San Diego. And the winner is... [drum roll] Kevin Jones, with this caption:

"You navigated through Vista's new security and accessed MySpace! Good job!"

Congratulations Kevin, you've won a free pass to ETech, enabling you to attend the Tuesday-Thursday sessions. I'll be in touch with more details.

Some other entries I liked:

"Act calm honey ... he won't bite as long as you don't open Google ..."
by Chen

"A gleeful Bill Gates unveils the new "Tickle Me Ballmer" to the delight of fans both young and old."
by Andy

"mommie, what does "welcome to the social" mean?"
by ryan

"Yea! We finally found some folks who love our software!"
by Joshua Porter [who I happen to know is an Apple fan!]

Earlier this week we gave away a free ticket to Office 2.0 and today we have a a free ticket to next week's ETech to offer as a prize. ETech is O'Reilly's Emerging Technology conference and it'll be held next week, March 26-29, in San Diego. An important note about the prize - the Etech pass is good for sessions only at ETech (Tuesday-Thursday). The workshops and the Executive Briefing on Monday are not included. Also of course you need to make your own way to San Diego and cover your accommodation. But still, the value of the ticket is $1390.00 - so it's a great prize and thanks O'Reilly Media for offering it to Read/WriteWeb.

I was hoping to be at ETech, but unfortunately I now can't make it. However Read/WriteWeb's Alex Iskold will be there, so if you're going to ETech and would like to meet up with Alex, send him an email at alex [dot] iskold [at] gmail [dot] com.

We picked on Google in the previous caption contest, so it's only fair we turn our attention to Microsoft this time ;-) Here is a photo from the recent Windows Vista launch in New York. I'm sure you can come up with some imaginative captions to this! Put your entries in the comments below. The winner will be picked by Friday morning PST time.

We had an awesome response to our caption contest on Monday - over 80 comments! The Under The Radar folks and myself had a tough choice deciding... but the winner of the free ticket to the Under The Radar Office 2.0 conference, to be held this Friday March 23 at the Microsoft Campus in Mountain View, is... (drum roll)

Ali from the Everybody Go To blog, whose caption was:

"Google Human Indexing - We start early."

Congratulations Ali! We'll be in contact by email shortly. For those of you who missed out, don't forget there is a discount code to the conference for R/WW readers.

There were of course many excellent caption suggestions. Others that made the shortlist of myself and the Under The Radar crew were:

Read/WriteWeb has 1 free ticket to give away for the Under The Radar Office 2.0 conference, to be held on March 23 at the Microsoft Campus in Mountain View. More details at the Under The Radar blog. The free ticket will be presented to the winner of this caption contest. To enter, simply provide a witty caption for the photo below, in the comments section to this post.

Also note there is a discount code available for the conference, for R/WW readers. Click here for that. Incidentally, I was originally going to be a judge at the event - but I am now unable to make it. However I will be in Silicon Valley from 13 April, if you would like to meet up then.

Here is the photo, which I'm sure will provide many opportunities for being witty :-) Put your suggested caption below, in the comments. Under The Radar and R/WW will be the judges, with final decision to be made by me. The winner will be announced late Tuesday afternoon PST.