KARE 11 stops by the Overnight Website Challenge

Needy meets nerdy as non-profits get an economic boost

For 24 hours straight a conference room on the University of Minnesota's Saint Paul campus serves as the headquarters of needy meets nerdy.

"The amount of nerdery that's in the room," said Sierra Bravo's Mark Hurlburt. "It's crazy."

Self-proclaimed nerds from all over the metro are here to help 12 of the state's non-profit organizations.

"It's a real niche community, it's a lot of citizen journalism." said Tim Benjamin, Executive Director/Editor of Access Press- Minnesota's disability community newspaper.

To use the internet, Benjamin uses a special instrument attached to his glasses. It allows him to surf the web and he hopes to make his site more user-friendly for others with disabilities. "We're hoping to get into the 21st Century, and these guys all seem to know what to do," said Benjamin.

Each non-profit has 10 tech geeks who work to either establish or upgrade their websites.

10 geeks at $100 an hour, for 24 hours is roughly 24 thousand dollars of service for free.

"We kind of get to change the game for 12 non-profits and help expand their mission," said Hurlburt. "It's kind of icing on the cake for a lot of people here."

Cake, cola, and chicken it's all on the digital menu to help get the techies through the night. "We'll see how this works out," said Benjamin. "If it comes out as well as we hope, it's going to be great."

If all does go as hoped the new and improved non-profit websites will be up and running by 10 a.m. Sunday.

By Jeffrey DeMars, KARE 11 News

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