The Ethos Group announces our first Masters of the Muni-Verse Challenge, a contest to identify and share the best free online resources available on municipal and community broadband with fabulous prizes.

Send us your recommendations for the best freely available municipal broadband resources by filling out our online entry form at http://www.ethoswireless.com/mastersofthemuniverse. We’ll choose the top 100 and make them available to everyone — Select Muni-Verse Master entrants will win fame, glory, travel funding, and chocolate. Your suggestions will help shape The Ethos Group’s upcoming Municipal Broadband Online Resource Center and Toolkit. Contest entries must be received by April 23th, 2007 — so take a break from taxes and for a chance to win some chocolate and travel!

Selected Masters of the Muni-Verse Receive:

1st Prize. Complimentary registration and $500 travel stipend for the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks May 18-20, 2007 at Loyola College in Columbia, Maryland (www.WirelessSummit.org) and a half-pound box of fair trade organic hand-made chocolates delivered to your door from http://www.luckychocolates.com.

2nd Prize. Complimentary registration and $250 travel stipend for the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks May 18-20, 2007 at Loyola College in Columbia, Maryland (www.WirelessSummit.org) and a half-pound box of fair trade organic hand-made chocolates delivered to your door from http://www.luckychocolates.com.

3rd Prize. A half-pound box of fair trade organic hand-made chocolates delivered to your door from http://www.luckychocolates.com.

What is a “resource”? Resources are broadly defined and open to your interpretation but may include: articles, blog posts, educational materials, organizing tools, municipal documents such as task force report, original research, white papers, presentations, maps, graphs, analysis tools, websites, critiques, or even other resource lists.

What topics are the Ethos Group looking for? Ethos is looking for useful tools for community organizers, decision-makers, implementers, and residents and may span (but are not limited to) topics such as: case studies, business models, technical information and comparisons, digital inclusion initiatives, rural connectivity, public health and safety, disaster response, policies and governance, do-it-yourself networking, as well as more general information on broadband and how it works.

How do I win? Ethos Group staff will select the winners from among completed entry forms. The more resources that you share with us, the higher your chance to win.

More contest details, rules, and fine print can be found at http://www.ethoswireless.com/mastersofthemuniversedetails