Here at Blacknight we’re strong believers in supporting interesting and / or worthy causes. We’ve sponsored plenty of events over the last few years and hopefully we’ll continue to be able to do so.
Personally I love the concept behind 24 The Web. It’s so simple and incredible, so when I heard that Stewart was organising it again this year I wanted us to be involved.
Anyway .. here’s the release we did on it that just went out:
Irish registrar and hosting company Blacknight, have announced their sponsorship of 24 The Web, a 24 hour web design challenge for charity. 24 The Web, which is in its second year, takes place during design week 2011 on the weekend of October 29-30 in Dublin, Ireland.
24 The Web is staffed by teams of volunteers, each donating 24 consecutive hours to building complete websites for non-profit organizations. The teams are made up of professional programmers, content writers, designers, IA/UX, project managers, HTML/CSS coders, as well as a wildcard (someone with any helpful skills not covered by the other categories). A bit like a university all-nighter, the teams work together to complete as many websites as they can in the allotted window of time.
Blacknight who are philanthropically active with a variety of charities have donated hosting and support services to the event. Michele Neylon of Blacknight states: “As a company, we have always made it a priority to be philanthropically involved with organizations that interest us. We love the idea of teams of talented professionals creating interesting, high-functioning websites for organizations that don’t otherwise have the resources to produce them. We hope that 24 The Web inspires other Internet professionals to donate spare time and resources to helping charities and non-profit organizations in their local areas get online.”
Supporters can donate food and drink for the 25 participants as well as tables, chairs, space heaters and emergency backup Internet dongles. Sponsors are rewarded with blog posts during the event, a logo and link on this site as well as tweets and photos during the event from participants.
Founder and organizer Stewart Curry says: “We are incredibly grateful for the support Blacknight has given this event. 24 The Web is not only a great help for the charities selected for the event but it is also a great way for people who work in the web industry to meet colleagues they tweet with every day. Hopefully it will also put a spotlight on the talents and skills involved in creating an effective, well- built and well-designed website.”
The 2011, 24 The Web teams and charities have been chosen so please visit http://24theweb.com/2011 and http://www.blacknight.com for updates as the event draws near.
About the Author: Michele Neylon
