ReadWriteWeb

Wanna win $5000 for your favorite non-profit? All it takes is to post a slide deck on Sliderocket for this contest called Make an Impact. Your presentation needs to be posted before March 28, and probably as soon as possible so you can begin promoting it and get some views. The four presentations with the most unique presentation views and judged to have the best storyline, composition and compelling cause will each win a $5,000 donation to their non-profit.

You don't have to be employed by the non-profit to enter: just designate who is going to get the dough if you win. The winning entries will be based on the strength of your story, presentation composition, and your non-profit's potential to make an impact.

Good luck! It is a great idea, and showcase's SlideRocket's process to collaborate too.

We bring in the new year with a new Pokki developer contest. Like the one we mentioned in October, you have a chance to win 30 large. But this one has an extra bonus with an all-expenses paid trip to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next spring. All you have to do is build a new game in HTML5 and other Web technologies (but not using any Flash, thank you very much) and have it approved at the Pokki store before the end of the day February 20, 2012.

Games will be judged by a panel of game development managers on the basis of gameplay, appeal, polish and overall graphics and sound. Besides the first prize mentioned above, there is a second and third prizes (but no trip) of $13,000 and $7,000. Here is where you can learn more about the contest and enter. Good luck! (We aren't affiliated with Pokki, but happy to promote other contests if you hear of them.)

Storify is announcing a contest to find the best story of 2011. The team has pulled together 10 nominees, but all Storify posts are eligible to win. Users can vote by clicking the Storify 'Like' button at the top of each story. You can like as many as you want, but you can only like each story once. The story with the most likes by December 29 wins Story Of The Year, and the author wins an iPad 2.

The Story Of The Year page will keep a running tally, and the top 10 authors will all receive Storify t-shirts. After liking a story, you'll be prompted to tweet about the contest. By promoting the contest on Twitter, anyone can enter into a drawing for another iPad 2. Make sure to include the hashtag, #storifyoftheyear. "This year, stories have often unfolded first on social media," says Storify co-founder Xavier Damman. "We can't wait to see which story moved people the most."

We'd like to extend a big thank you to our loyal readers and community at ReadWriteWeb. As part of that, we've partnered with ThinkGeek to give away a few geeky and fun prizes. Here's how it works, we'll give you a few trivia tidbits of interest on a topic, and then close with a trivia question that we hope will be a stumper.

So read on, dig deep into your brain (or Google), and give us your answer in the comments. The best answer, according to the ReadWriteWeb staff crack team of trivia experts, wins the prize of the day.

We want to extend a big thank you to our loyal readers and community at ReadWriteWeb. To do so, we've partnered with ThinkGeek to give away a few fun, geeky prizes. Here's how it works: We'll give you a few trivia tidbits of interest, and then close with a trivia question that we hope is a brain-teaser.

Dig deep into the recesses of your brain (or your favorite search engine), and answer via the comments on this post. The best answer, according to RWW staff, wins the prize of the day, kindly donated by ThinkGeek.

Ever since Windows 3.0, new versions of Windows have essentially been extensions of the existing platform. Windows 8 is not. It is a bold and undisguised effort to shuttle an existing user base of tens of millions from one platform to another, leaving the lights on over the Desktop so folks moving off the old platform can still see.

Okay, time to get shopping today, at least according to all the merchants who have had their doors open since last night. But how about putting some of the retail therapy to better use? Apica, the cloud performance measurement vendor, is sponsoring a contest, and the first prize is a $1000 Amazon gift card. Certainly, we all spend too much with Amazon as it is, but this could go towards a new Kindle or a bunch of videos to bulk up your holiday collection.

The moment many of you have been waiting for is here. We're pleased to announce the last two winners of the MacBook Air contest! Give a big hand to Aaron Meyers and Marshall May! If you're not Meyers or May, don't lose hope: We're extending the last MacBook Air contest for 2011 through Thanksgiving Weekend.

Meyers, senior business systems analyst for a government contractor, responded to "tell us how you won management over to virtualization." Meyers provided an in-depth response that contest judge Roger Levy, SVP of product at Engine Yard, deamed worthy of a MacBook Air.

Email service provider iContact is holding an interesting contest (we aren't involved, just like contests). Make a short video on why you either like or hate social media and post it before December 5th. Simple enough, and it sounds like a lot of fun too.

Last month we asked, "What are your top three features for virtualization solutions?" The incentive? An Apple MacBook Air to the commenter with the best response. We've got more where that came from, too.

You answered, and we had Erica Brescia of BitRock do the judging. We got a bunch of great responses, but only one person could win – and that was Michael Schade. Schade's picks for top three features? Policies, preconfigured images, and a robust API. (He had more to say, of course – head over to the post and check it out!)