MashupChallenge - A Web 2.0 Mashup Competition

In 22 days, on October 1st, Mashup Challenge will launch, offering developers an interesting twist on creating new web 2.0 mashups.

For those of you who are not exactly sure of what a mashup is, it is "a combination of one or more data sources to create a unified interface and experience." For example, Dewspot is a mashup that integrates features of Twitter, YouTube, Google Maps, and Flickr into one central service.

So what's so different the Mashup Challenge? Well, it will be a competition between developers, but most importantly the mashup that each developer builds must use a pre-selected group of API's.

Four times a year (quarterly), developers will be given a period of no more than 90 days to create a unique and innovative mashup from the list of random API's that are provided by MashupChallenge.

The folks at Mashup Awards are the brains behind this new contest, which still has yet to release much information. As of now, the website features a clock counting down to the official launch. Also, it is allowing anyone interested to sign up to receive email updates when the competition begins.

The Mashup Awards is a hand-picked showcase of some of the best mashups on the web. Submissions are judged based on 5 major criteria. Lazy Library, which was just covered on Profy, just happens to be the September winner for mashup of the month.

Mashup Challenge has not revealed any information about prizes or how the entries will be scored or judged, but for developers, this may be the chance to get some recognition for hard work.