We have gathered everything you need to know on this page. The application is online and will be timestamped upon submission. Please make sure you read it before applying and if anything is unclear, let us know and we will try to make it make as clear as we can.

The sum of the grants given in the program will be $5000. Ten projects will be granted directly from the Turbulence team. They will be distributed in the following fashion:

• $2000 to the 1st Place in the Space design category
• $500 each to the 2nd-5th Places in the Space design category
• $600 to the 1st in the Trails design category
• $100 each to the 2nd-5th Places in the Trails design category.

The trails grants will be awarded to the chosen trails shortly after the winners announcements. The Space development grants will be broken into two payments, one shortly after the announcement and the other after the Space's first release.

The deadline to apply for both the Spaces and Trails categories is:
February 25th March 10th, 2008 11:59pm EST.

We request you inform us if you fail to meet the deadline or submit a partial application.

The commissions program is receiving applications in two categories, each category has slightly different guidelines.

For the Space category, you are invited to develop metaweb applications - applications and interfaces that will function as a part of the ShiftSpace platform. These Spaces will be added to the tool menu ShiftSpace users see when they press [shift] and open the space menu. Existing Spaces include Notes, Highlights, ImageSwap and SourceShift.

The launch of the commissions program is also the launch of the new ShiftSpace API (Application Programming Interface), a set of Javascript objects and functions that we built to make it as easy as possible to develop Spaces. Currently a space can be anything from 16 lines of code to full fledged and technologically advanced application. We encourage you to check out the code and in case you feel intimidated by Javascript, find a partner and apply together as a team. We encourage programmers to team up with designers for this application. This is actually the model at work in the ShiftSpace team itself, and we find that this makes a well-balanced team. If you're chosen, we promise to provide help and support in the development process; well will work together to make sure the Space actually happens.

We want to keep the applications in the spaces category as open as we can. All you need to do is post a link to the location of your application online. The obligatory parts of the application are the name of the proposed space and a short description (up to 1000 characters), but on the page you make, you might also want to include:

• User Scenario.
• Image mockups.
• More information.
• Inspiration.
• References.
• More information about yourself or your team.
• Video mockups.
• And whatever you see fit to make a better case for your application.

Again, these are only recommendations, you should not feel obliged to include all or even any of them- use it as a list of tips for getting your ideas across.

Trails are information maps that network Shifts (ShiftSpace annotations and modifications) across websites. The trails interface is very easy to use so this category is open to every ShiftSpace user and does not require any web development skills.

We believe Trails can be a powerful research and discourse tool and are looking forward to seeing you using it. You might already be creating a trail as a part of your every day use of ShiftSpace. If you believe this trail is especially strong or unveils an interesting research or debate across the web, it might make a good applicaton for the commissions program. This category is your opportunity to use ShiftSpace to the best of your ability and get the acknowledgement (and reward) you deserve. You may create a set of Shifts using the different Spaces available through ShiftSpace, but you might also trail other users Shifts and submit your mapping as an application. There is no minimum or maximum requirement for the size of a Trail, so feel free to explore the web, shift it and share it with the jury and with the rest of the ShiftSpace community.

Every Trail has a unique url on the ShiftSpace website and they are all aggregated on http://www.ShiftSpace.org/trails. To apply to the Trails category, post the name and url of your Trail and write a short description of it (up to 1000 characters).

The ShiftSpace commissions program is a very interdisciplinary competition, and we have gathered a wide range of jury members to emphasize that. The program is not, in anyway limited to academic research, artistic expression, utalitarian design, political protest or geeky sub-culture. We want to be surprised- a successful application will teach us something we don't know or haven't thought of about ShiftSpace. A successful application will make a significant contribution to the ShiftSpace community.

All applicants will be informed by mid-March. The winners will receive the grant directly from Turbulence, and will be credited as Turbulence commissioned artists.

Even though this current grant allows us to financially support only 10 applications, we do intend to contact more applicants and work with them on developing their Spaces and promoting their Trails. So even if you don't win (and we the ShiftSpace team are only a small part of the jury), we may still be interested in working with you.

This is the timeline for the commissions program:

Nov 3rd, 07 - Announcement

Feb 25th, 08 March 10th, 08 - Applications deadline

Mar 24th, 08 - Jury's decision is made

April 1st, 08 - Winners Announced, Winning trails are posted on the Commissions site (hosted by Turbulence.org)

Jul 15th, 08 - By this date all the winners in the space category should publish the first release of their space. The award is given once the first release of the commissioned space is published.