API Mashup Contest: It’s exactly what it sounds like, and developers can submit their creations now

The ever-increasing number of open APIs for online services and datastores in recent years has fuelled a growth in hacks and mashups that range diverting bits of fun, to genuinely useful apps – and even prototypes of products for future startups. You only have to look at the increasing popularity of hackathons to see how developers and companies alike are taking to this new landscape with aplomb.

Now in its third cycle, the API Mashup Contest celebrates API culture and lets developers show off their best creations. Supported by Google, developer community GUG.cz, Apiary.io, Q-Sensei, MyGengo and Nexmo, the contest allows developers to submit their API mashups and perhaps win prizes including an Amazon Kindle Fire and a bundle of services for your startup worth up to $5000.

Billed as “The biggest API playground in the world,” the latest API Mashup Contest will be judged by a panel including angel investor Esther Dyson; Gillian Muessig, founding president of SEOmoz; Jon Bradford of London’s Springboard accelerator, a group of leading investors from Poland, oh – and the humble author of this very article.

If you’d like to submit your API mashup, you have until 31 May 2012 to apply. You can find full details on the contest’s website.

➤ API Mashup Contest