Basically, the contest is to create a plugin, widget, mash up, hack, or other variety of web application that helps people find and share opportunities to take action. The grand prize is 50 benjis, and the best WordPress plugin will also be featured in the Plugin Directory. But the real prize is spreading a little more love in the world.

Click here for all the details.

“Writing a Plugin” in the WordPress Codex is where I got started when I needed to get hooked in to WordPress. Others might like to grab one of the over 4,000 open source WordPress plugins and tweak the source. If in need of a little help, the Plugins and Hacks forum is full of friends to assist you wrap your head around the code or debug a problem. Social Actions also has provided some developer resources.

Let’s show them how we change the web the WordPress way!

You can find out more information and download the plugin on the new Widgets page.

If you’re a developer, writing a WordPress Widget is as easy as a plugin and we’ve even documented all the APIs for you, as well as including guides for theme authors and current plugin authors.

What’s the potential audience for widgets? In addition to the 130,000+ blogs on WordPress.com, you have the potential to tap in to the 5,000 people downloading WordPress every single day and the hundreds of thousands of existing WordPress blogs out there.