Knight Foundation seeks next big piece of journalistic technology

The Knight Foundation, the non-profit arm of the Knight family (half of the Knight-Ridder media conglomerate), is now accepting entries for the Knight News Challenge. The Challenge is seeking out the next innovation for news gathering and dissemination, and they’ll be paying up to $5 million to the successful entry.

What kind of innovation is the Foundation looking for? They’re looking for digital technology that will transform the way communities send, receive and make use of news and information. The successful entry will fall into one of four categories:

• Mobile:  Seeks projects that use mobile devices to produce, deliver, consume, share and otherwise engage with news. The category reflects the fact that the mobile phone, with 5 billion units in use, has become an important tool for news.

• Authenticity category: Looks for projects that help people better understand the reliability of news and information sources. We’re hoping to identify promising ideas for helping citizens negotiate our oft-chaotic media world. How can we help news users better evaluate the validity and trustworthiness of news and information? How can we better filter and assess the credibility of what we read and watch?

• Sustainability: Considers new economic models supporting news and information. New ways of conducting and consuming journalism may require new ways of paying for it. We’re open to ideas for generating revenue as well as ways to reduce costs.

• Community: Seeks groundbreaking technologies that support news and information specifically within defined geographic areas. This is designed to jump-start work on technologies and approaches that haven’t arrived yet. Unlike the first three categories, submissions in this area must be tested in a geographically designated community.

You can have a look at past projects here, and you’ll probably notice the variety of successful applicants. CMS, methods for engaging citizens, crowdsourcing tools, and many others have all found success in the past. A simple description of the project is all you need to apply. If the reviewers like it, you'll be asked to submit a full proposal later.

For more information about the Challenge, past winners, and how to apply, visit the Knight Foundation’s website here.