Make sure you visit their site for the official rules and further information. Entries are due by October 3.

Note to all my geek friends: Cisco is the one using the term “crib”, not me. Am I mistaken, or didn’t it go out with Arsenio Hall? Then again, if they’re paying big bucks, do you even care what they call your home?

If you’re planning on visiting the The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze at historic Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y, make sure you take along your camcorder for a chance to enter this video contest. Historic Hudson Valley will be giving away one iPod Touch a week for four weeks. In order to enter, you need to capture the event on video and publish your work on YouTube. Your videos can’t be longer than three minutes and the winners will be those that “best capture the creativity and excitement of The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze experience”.

Each week’s contest ends on Tuesday at midnight, meaning videos must be posted on YouTube by 11:59 p.m. Tuesday to be eligible for that week’s prize. Winners will be announced on WHUD on the following Friday. The contest deadlines are Tuesday, Oct. 7, Tuesday, Oct. 14, Tuesday, Oct. 21, and Tuesday, Oct. 28. Winners will be notified by phone or e-mail. Each video may only be entered once and an individual can only win one prize, even if they enter more than one video. Limit one prize per household. Do not take your tripod along, they’re not allowed for safety reasons. After you upload your video, send email to blazevideo @ hudsonvalley.org with a link to the video and your full name and phone number.

I wonder what they do with all the leftover pumpkins? Also, do they keep the seeds and use them for next year? Come to think of it, does anyone know where they get all those pumpkins in the first place?

Let me start by saying that this video contest is only open to students in Oklahoma, 13 years of age or older, enrolled in an Oklahoma middle school or high school (or the equivalent of) for the 2008-2009 school year. Their site says, “MyTakeOnHealth Oklahoma Challenge School Video Contest aims to teach Oklahoma students the importance of healthy living by challenging them to create healthy TV-type advertisements.  The video advertisements will help to increase awareness in Oklahoma of the link between the national obesity epidemic and high rates of chronic disease, both of which are often the result of poor lifestyle choices.  The ultimate goal of the school video contest is to further educate Oklahoma children on the need to live well, stay off drugs, and prevent chronic disease.

Video Format: The videos should be in television commercial format of 30 to 60 seconds in length.  Videos longer than 60 seconds will not be accepted. The target audience is all children or adults in Oklahoma who are at risk for chronic disease, drug use, or being overweight or obese (a clear majority of our population). The video can be staged as a short play, commercial, news broadcast, talk show, music video, animation, documentary, etc.

The contest runs through runs through December, with first- and second-place finishers decided each month. Prizes given out monthly include $3500 for first place, $1,500 and the school of the first place video receives $1,000. They’re also having weekly drawings, giving away prizes such as laptops, televisions, and iPods. Make sure you review the official rules and submit the necessary forms.

Personally, I think this is a nice idea, but next year, how about doing a contest about financial health? I mean, many kids know that a carrot has less calories than a Twinkie, but how many of them understand how to balance a budget, how to calculate APR, or how to figure a healthy debt-to-income ratio? I’m not knocking this contest, I just think more kids need to understand debt so they don’t end up in financial trouble as soon as they’re old enough to apply for a credit card. Okay, end of editorial, and good luck to all the students in Oklahoma!

If you’re planning on entering this, make sure you confirm their deadline. The only information I could find said that the contest ends next year on September 26th, 2009. I would hate for you to miss your chance to win because someone on a website made a typo.

Google has started Project 10¹⁰⁰ (pronounced “Project 10 to the 100th”) as a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible. All you need to do is to fill out the submission form giving the gist of your idea (in one of multiple categories) and you can supplement your proposal with a 30-second video.Google is committing $10 million to implement these projects, with the goal of helping  as many people as possible. The site says, “So remember, money may provide a jumpstart, but the idea is the thing.”

Winners get the satisfaction of knowing that their ideas, their creativity may positively impact peoples lives and that feeling may be more rewarding than anything money can buy. Submissions are due by October 20, 2008 and voting begins on January 27th, 2009.

Your video should include:
Title – A short, evocative title that includes the name of your school.
Description – A brief description that reflects the content of your submission.
Video Category – Choose “Education”.
Tags – Include “building dashboard” as well as the name of your school.

Make sure you read the complete rules on their site because they also require that you join their YouTube group and email them your information. The email address on the page can also be used for any questions you may have.

The winner will be announced at the Greenbuild 2008 International Conference & Expo in Boston on November 19, 2008. Complete entries must be submitted by October 24.

Check their site for the complete rules and the contest will run until 11:59PM EST November 15th, 2008.

This video contest isn’t your run of the mill competition, but don’t let the prize amount stop you from grabbing your Flip Mino (or other camcorder) and submitting an entry. The X PRIZE Foundation is an educational non-profit that designs and administers competitions with prizes of $10 million or more. They have announced that they are looking for the best video to help them decide what their next Grand Challenge contest should be and that proposes a new, world-changing X PRIZE in the field of Energy and the Environment. From their site: “An X PRIZE is a $10 million+ award given to the first team to achieve a specific goal, set by the X PRIZE Foundation, which has the potential to benefit humanity. The X PRIZE is viewed as the leading model to leverage the elements of public interest, entrepreneurial spirit and cross-disciplinary innovation to bring about breakthroughs that benefit us all. We believe that a small group of people with passion for a cause can achieve that which has never been attained. This is why we stage competitions that challenge issues that matter most.”

Make a video on the topic, “What’s Your Crazy Green Idea?”  Your entry should be creative, persuasive and make sure to detail the rules you would include for an X PRIZE competition. The winning video must answer the following three questions:
1. What is the specific prize idea?
2. What is the Grand Challenge or world-wide problem that you are trying to solve?
3. How will this prize benefit humanity?

Contestants need to submit a 2-minute video by October 31, 2008 to their YouTube channel. Make sure to read the complete contest rules and you may want to browse their blogs as well.

To enter the blogging contest, students must: Create a blog before October 1 and update regularly throughout the school year. In April the blogs will be assessed to determine the best of the bunch based on qualitative and quantitative measures. A number of prizes will be available for different categories. Some of the prizes include $2,000 cash, a Mini Laptop, a $500 gift card for the Campus Shop and an Apple iTouch. Your blog must be hosted on www.blogger.com. An email must be sent to blog@nipissingu.ca before October 1 with your name, and blog URL. You must be a current student of Nipissing University. You must update your blog at least once every 31 days.

The complete rules for both contests are available as a PDF download, and even if you don’t plan on entering, they also included some great tips for beginning bloggers.

This such an exciting idea! You can show your school prize and add a bit of cash to your pocket at the same time. 300 dollars can really help a starving student, just think of how many ramen noodles that would buy!
Make sure to get your entry submitted by 5 p.m. EDT on Friday, October 17.

Here’s last year’s winning video: