One of our mantras here at Mobil Avenue is that social computing is not about the technology but rather what people actually do with the technology. A great example of this is the Open Architecture Challenge. It was conceived by Cameron Sinclair, co-founder of Architect for Humanity, and supported by AMD’s 50X15 initative.

Three community partners were selected from 108 applicants across three continents. For-profit non-profit initiatives on sites in Napo Province (Ecuador), Sanfe Bagar, Achham (Nepal) and Nairobi (Kenya) will give their respective communities the opportunity to help themselves.

Entrants to the challenge are not required to hold any formal qualifications and are invited to develop a design for one, two or all three sites. Closing date for entries is Febuary 29th with funds of up to $250k being made available for the chosen designs. All entries will be made available in the public domain at the end of the challenge to share all concept designs for use elsewhere.

One of the entrants is Studio Wikitecture who over the last year have been using virtual world Second Life as a platform to explore the concept of open source architecture. Theory Shaw SL / Ryan Schultz RL and Keystone Bouchard SL / Jon Brouchoud RL are harnessing the collective intelligence of 40+ “architects” from around the world utilising technology developed in collaboration with i3Dnow. Hat tip to Roland Legrand for bringing this wonderful initiative to our attention.