Boston.com invites local digital innovators to ?The Boston Hack Day Challenge? on February 25, 26, and 27, 2011. The event, which will be held in the MassChallenge office on Fan Pier in Boston's Innovation District, will challenge developers, techies, product managers, marketers, designers, entrepreneurs and others to create new online and mobile products that can make life better for Bostonians.

Developers and all others active in the development of new products in the digital space who are interested in participating in the challenge can register at beta.boston.com. Boston.com is also eager to hear from local companies who have application programming interfaces (APIs) that can be used at the event.

People interested in following the event can do so at beta.boston.com or via Twitter at @betadotboston and hashtag #bostonhack. ?The Boston Hack Day Challenge? updates will be posted there.

?Boston is a hotbed of new product development, technology, and higher education, so this is the perfect opportunity to bring together all of these innovators in one place,? said Jeff Moriarty, vice president, Digital Products of The Boston Globe and Boston.com. ?The immersive event will allow participants to make new connections and learn skills in a supportive and energetic environment.?

Boston.com is working with Project 11, which specializes in mentoring start-up technology companies, to organize the weekend. On Friday evening teams will be formed and given 48 hours to build a web site or phone app that makes life in Boston better. Mentors from the innovation community will be on hand to answer team questions. The weekend will culminate with demonstrations of the new digital creations and the selection of winners by a panel of expert judges. The finished projects will be featured on a new site on Boston.com, Beta.Boston.com, where the entire Boston community will be able to test the web sites and applications.

Beta.Boston.com is an interactive site that allows site users to experiment with emerging technology and provide feedback on new products. In addition to the projects from Hack Day, Beta.Boston.com will also showcase new features and technologies being developed for Boston.com and the new web site BostonGlobe.com, which will launch later this year. One goal of Beta.Boston.com is to make site users a key part of the website development process.

?We consider our web sites always in a ?beta' form because we constantly want to make them better with our audience's help and input,? said Mr. Moriarty. ?The Boston Hack Day Challenge event will also embrace what Beta.Boston.com is all about: providing a space for the development and enhancement of interactive products and applications that make our lives more exciting.?

About Boston.com:

Boston.com is one of the most visited regional portals in the U.S. and is wholly owned by The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), a leading media company with 2009 revenues of $2.4 billion, which includes The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, 15 other daily newspapers and more than 50 Web sites, including NYTimes.com, Boston.com and About.com. The Company's core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment.

For Boston.com
Bob Powers, 617-929-2270
V.P. Marketing & Communications
powers@globe.com