Mozilla has launched a competition with $500,000 in prize money for the winning apps.

The competition being run in partnership with the National Science Foundation, which is providing the prize money,  is called Mozilla Ignite. The inspiration for the competition comes from the government initiative by the Obama administration called US Ignite. This is described as:

"an initiative to promote US leadership in developing applications and services for ultra-fast broadband and software-defined networks."

The hope behind US Ignite is that it will form an incubator ecosystem that lets everyday people become familiar with innovative technologies such as high speed networks and advanced infrastructure.

Mozilla Ignite has five areas for which you can develop apps: advanced manufacturing, education and workforce technologies, healthcare, public safety, and clean energy/transportation. According to the Mozilla Ignite site, the goal of the competition is to show how next-generation networks can revolutionize healthcare, education, public safety, energy and more. There will be three rounds with prizes awarded in each round.

Mozilla is keen to encourage developers (or just people who have good ideas) to work together in teams. The brainstorming round running until August 23, 2012 with the aim of gathering exciting ideas in the different competition areas. Following this comes a ‘hacking’ round, where attendees will be able to meet like-minded collaborators at code sprints, design jams and webinars. The final element will be the actual competition, and entries for this section will open in August.

Who can enter? According to the faqs the competition is open to web developers, university researchers, network engineers, start-ups, civic innovators, and anyone interested in high-speed networks. But there are restrictions on being awarded prize money. Specifically, only U.S.-incorporated organizations and citizens can accept awards. In practical terms this means that teams can have members from all over the world, but at least one team member, or a host, must be in the United States.

More Information

Mozilla Ignite

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