That could happen. It’s the trade-off of that of submitting your ideas to a contest that is open to the public and having the opportunity to use the wisdom of the crowd to improve your entry.

It would be possible for someone to read your idea and submit a similar one. If the contest were to be closed we would avoid this situation but that would prevent you from getting ideas and feedback from others that might improve your application.

During Knight Foundation’s process of reviewing applications, we might be able to identify ideas that appear to be copies and to decline applications that appear to be copies but we cannot promise to do that. 

Entering “openly” means you are either confident enough in your own abilities and track record that you’ll be chosen to do the work even if others have similar ideas, or that you don’t really care who does the work as long as it gets done.

Can I claim a piece of someone else’s prize if I give them the idea (in the open entry) that propels their project into a winning category?[top]

Only if you are a co-applicant. Otherwise, if you comment on an entry you are doing so freely and voluntarily with the knowledge that you are not creating any ownership rights for yourself.  It is theoretically possible for a technology expert with a good entry to meet up through the comment process with a community expert and want to invite them to join in as a partner in a revised entry. But that’s up to the original applicant.