Internet superpower Google decides to again give back to the community. Their newest project is an idea contest, with a prize of $10 million. Through online submissions, people can send one or more ideas and projects of their own. The only criteria announced so far by Google executives is that all the ideas must be socially-oriented and provide solutions to such issues as access to education and alternative energy sources.

www.project10tothe100.com (10^100) gives you 6 categories to help you define the field you are trying to contribute to: Community (connecting people, building communities, protecting cultures), Opportunity (helping people provide for themselves and their families), Energy (moving the world towards safe, clean and inexpensive energy), Environment (promoting a cleaner and more sustainable global ecosystem), Health (helping individuals lead a longer and healthier life), Education (helping more people get more access to better education), Shelter (trying to provide living facilities to everyone) and Everything else, a category that will hold “sometimes the best ideas that don’t fit into any category at all.”

The next steps are a filling in the idea’s name and brief description of your idea, followed by a more detailed one (in a language of your choice, out of the 25 options). Afterwards, you are asked to write what issues your idea addresses and who would it benefit. Then, you must list the initial steps you would take to implement your idea and also estimate your ideal outcome and explain which factor you would use to measure success.

The submissions’ deadline is October 20th. From that point on, Google representatives and an advisory board will choose a number of 100 preliminary winners, by January 27th. The public will then have until February 2nd to vote their favorite ideas. A panel of judges (who so far have not been selected or named) will then look through the 20 most voted ideas and select a maximum number of five ideas. The $10 million award will be split amongst the winners.

This is not Goggle’s first attempt to award brilliance, inventiveness and practicality. Another project they have on the roll is Lunar X Prize, where the so far 16 participating teams must land a module on the Moon, have it travel around for about 500 meters and then send the acquired information (measurements, photos) back to Earth. The total amount that will be awarded is of $30 million, while the first team to complete the Google mission will be granted two thirds of the sum, an astonishing $20 million.

Great news for those of us who launch ideas and don’t have the technical aspects figured out: Google does not expect you to give a step-by-step description of how you will implement your idea. The only question mark concerning the project hovers above the funds running out for an idea – how will it continue to be funded and applied?