How to vote in NetSquared challenges — voting closes Friday 3 PM Pacific time!

NetSquared is hosting the N2Y4 Mobile Challenge and Social Actions’ Change the Web Challenge, both filled with great projects for people to vote on, with a total of $60,000 in funding and prizes for the winners .  Cool!  But …

At least for me, the voting process was extraordinarily difficult; I counted 15 steps, and in many cases the instructions for what to do next weren’t at all obvious.  It’s a complicated two-step process where you have to first “mark your ballot” and then submit it.  Even finding the button to vote isn’t easy — it looks like an ad for NetSquared.   And I’m a trained professional!

NetSquared’s voting instructions help some if you can find them but are primarily text — there’s only one screenshot (and it highlights the “send to administrator link” which doesn’t have anything to do with voting).  Fortunately the folks at Capitol News Connection have written up excellent instructions for their project … and it’s straightforward to see how to apply these to any of the ideas in the N2Y4 Project Gallery and Change the Web Project Gallery.

So if you’re trying to vote, check out the instructions below.

And if you’re advocating for a project, consider creating a similar instruction sheet and distributing it to your supporters before tomorrow’s deadline, encouraging them to double-check their votes.  If you don’t have the time or resources to do something slick, that’s fine: step-by-step text instructions with links are a lot better than nothing.  Voter education makes a huge difference in competitions like this, and it also is a good way of showing your supporters that you appreciate all the hard work they’re doing getting through the obstacles NetSqaured has set up from them.

jon

Sample instructions from CNC for Ask Your Lawmaker

STEP ONE: Login or Register. STEP TWO: Visit the Ask Your Lawmaker project page. STEP THREE: Look for the blue box (seen below) on the ‘Ask Your Lawmaker’ page to vote for our project.
STEP FOUR: Double check the sidebar on the right to make sure AYL has been added to your ballot. STEP FIVE: Visit the Project Gallery and peruse the submissions. Then repeat step three to vote for two more projects that you like. STEP SIX: Once you have voted for at least three (or as many as five) projects you will notice that your ballot will change and you will have a link to ‘Cast Ballot’ (see below) will appear on the right sidebar. After you cast your ballot, you will then be prompted to verify your submission. Triple check to make sure that AYL is on your ballot, then click the ‘Submit Ballot’ button. After that, you are all set. STEP SEVEN: Thanks for voting! Ask Your Lawmaker, Capitol News Connection and the NetSquared community appreciate your participation. Please pass this along to friends who might like to help out as well.
Follow this link for more details on the voting process, or click here to learn more about NetSquared.