WHAT
What is the Young Creators Award?
The Knight Foundation places a high priority on engaging young people to shape their own future. For that reason, if you have an idea that fits the Knight News Challenge goals, you will automatically be part of the Young Creators category. Each year money has been specifically set aside for this award. The category is part of a worldwide effort to get young people more engaged in their communities through digital news and information.
What is the Knight Foundation?
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation invests in journalism excellence worldwide and in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities. Since 1950 the foundation has granted more than $300 million to advance quality journalism and freedom of expression. It focuses on projects with the potential to create transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.
What is the process for applying?
The only place you can apply is here on the Knight News Challenge web site. No applications are accepted by mail, e-mail, fax, or any other means.
First, you take about 20 minutes to fill out a simple form that tells us the essence of your idea. If we think your idea shows promise, we’ll ask you to write a full proposal. (This is to keep you from wasting a lot of time if we aren’t interested.)
This year the contest is open. Once you submit your idea everyone will be able to read, rate and comment on your submission.
The “entry” is the first step of the application process, and it is fairly quick and easy to complete. The “proposal” is the second step, and it is more detailed. You will be notified whether or not you make it to the “proposal” stage. The deadline for the application phase is November 1, 2008. The deadline for the full proposal phase is December 1, 2008.
What kind of projects will get funded?
If you can say yes to every one of these, then your idea qualifies for submission:
- Digital – Your idea uses digital technology (computers, the internet, cell phones, that sort of thing).
- Innovative – Your idea is new and original. It’s different from what people have done before. You are, in some way, breaking new ground.
- News/information – Your idea is about giving people access to what they want to know.
- Timely – Your idea delivers news or information while it’s still fresh.
- Community-building – Your idea helps create a sense of community among some group of individuals.
- Limited geographic area – Your idea affects people in a specific area, which could be as big as a state or province, or as small as a city block. (If your idea is national or worldwide in scope, it must work at a regional level.)
- Open Source – The inner workings of what you create will be visible to the world, so that others can take it and improve upon it. (Read more here.)
What is the Knight News Challenge?
The Knight News Challenge is a contest run by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which has earmarked $25 million over a five-year period.
As much as $5 million will be given away this year. Anyone can apply.
The goal is to spur innovation in the delivery of information and news using digital media.
Whether it’s election coverage, crime statistics, little league scores, road conditions or anything else; we’re looking for smart, innovative solutions that connect people with the news and information that matters to them most.
WHO
Who reviews my application?
Knight staff, outside digital media experts and the Foundation’s journalism advisory committee review entries. Senior staff recommends winners. Foundation trustees make the final decision.
Who is eligible to enter the Young Creators Award?
Anyone in the world 25 years of age or younger.
The Young Creators Award is a subcategory of the Knight News Challenge. If you are 25-years-old or younger and you have an idea that fits the Knight News Challenge goals, you will automatically be part of the Young Creators category. Each year money has been specifically set aside for this award. The category is part of a worldwide effort to get young people more engaged in their communities through digital news and information.
Who can enter?
Anyone, anywhere , from a high school student in Beijing to a business executive in New York.
This competition is open to nonprofits, companies or individuals of any age and anywhere in the world. The question is not who you are, but what kind of idea you have.
You do not need to be 18 years old to enter, but awards to minors will be made to an intermediary designated by the Knight Foundation.
WHEN
When do I get my money and start the project?
Awards will be distributed in 2009. Knight Foundation will work out a schedule with each winner.
When will winners be announced?
Fall 2009
When is the deadline for entry?
November 1, 2008
WHERE
Where do I send my entry?
No entries by mail are accepted. Please apply here, on this site
Where should my project take place?
Anywhere in the world, but it must affect a specific geographic community.
The community can be as small as a city block or as big as a state or province. If your idea is national in scope, it must work on a local level. (For example, MTV won last year with the idea of putting Knight Mobile Youth Journalists all over the country, but each one operated within his or her own state.)
Here’s our thinking behind this:
Online communities don’t need our help. Virtual communities spring up every day. But using digital news and information to enhance physical communities — that’s something we think does need our help.
The reason we’re focusing on physical communities is that our democracy is organized by geography. We want to help improve the lives of people where they live, work and vote.
Where in the world do you accept entries from?
Everywhere. You do not need to be a U.S. citizen to enter.
WHY
Why should I enter?
Because you have a big idea and you want to bring it to life.
Because you want to make your mark.
Because you want to do something that improves people’s lives.
Why is the Knight Foundation doing this?
Newspapers used to be the glue that held communities together. The news they printed helped people identify problems and work together to find solutions. TECHNOLOGY has changed everything.
Most of us use the internet, cell phones and other gadgets to find out what we want to know. Although technology connects us with the world, it can leave us disconnected from those in our geographic community. We want to help people use technology to find out what they want to know and what they need to know to improve their lives.
We want to bring people together in the real world through technology.
HOW
Are there different categories?
There is just one category: The General (open source, open standards) category. The Young Creators Award (YCA) is a sub-category of the General category so all the same rules apply to it.
We’re looking for people with great ideas who don’t quite know how to make them happen, or people who have an exciting idea they want to test. You just have to use digital news and information in a new way to create a sense of community for people in a given geographic area.
How can I improve the chances of my application being successful?
- State the essence of your idea within the first two or three sentences.
- Ask someone who is not familiar with your project to proof-read your application for clarity.
- Make sure your applications meets the basic requirements (digital, news/information, limited geographic area, timely, open source, community-building – see FAQ item “What kind of projects will get funded?”
ETC.
I heard that employees of former Knight-Ridder newspapers are not eligible to enter.
We face IRS restrictions in giving to the Miami Herald, the Akron Beacon Journal and the Detroit Free Press because these former Knight-Ridder newspapers once gave contributions to the foundation. But employees of those papers may still apply for individual news challenge awards. There are, however, exceptions, including officers or directors of those newspapers or their parent companies. The best way to find out whether or not you are eligible is to apply. When employees apply, they must apply as individuals, and not propose to use any company resources, time or intellectual property rights.
If two people enter as a team, who gets the money?
The award money would be distributed to both of them. Each person would have equal claim on the money unless they agree between themselves, and tell us clearly, that they wish a different distribution because of different contributions to the application.
You said you don’t want to pay money for people to blog, so why are there “blogger winners”? How are they different?
We don’t have a problem with blogs. But paying someone to blog about the local school board is not a digital innovation. A person can do that right now, without this contest. The blogs we support are for the purpose of publicly developing new ideas of how to create community news experiments using digital innovation. We also ask all winners to blog about their projects, as part of their obligation to share their
knowledge.
Are winnings taxable?
Because individual situations vary, you need to consult a professional tax adviser with this question.
What if my project is a total failure?
If you are awarded a grant, Knight Foundation will work with you to help you succeed. We will bring our resources and experience to your aid, where feasible. Nonetheless, sometimes ideas still don’t work out. If that happens, the important thing is to learn from the experience. That’s why we call these projects “community news experiments”. Experiments fail all the time, but at least if you are rigorously honest, you learn what didn’t work.
What if I’m a minor and I win, and my parents are divorced or I have another legal guardian? Can I decide which of my guardians receives the award money?
No. Knight Foundation will select an intermediary who is not a family member to manage the money for you.
Can someone “steal” my idea?
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?
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.
Do I hold the intellectual property rights for my idea?
Yes. The applicant holds the intellectual property rights, subject to Knight Foundation’s requirement that the intellectual property be shared with the world. By entering the contest you agree to share those rights with the world in line with open-source, open-standard philosophy. Once you submit your idea, others will be able to comment on it. They will be also be able to share it with their friends and rate it.
They are freely giving you their wisdom, and by doing that, they are agreeing to let you incorporate their ideas into your project. If you win, however, under the open-source rules you’ll have to share your software code and other know-how with everyone.
Will you really fund a for-profit company?
Yes, if the company is uniquely positioned to test or develop a new technique or technology and is willing to share the results of that test with everyone. We see the challenge as a kind of flexible research and development fund, open to anyone.
Can I enter both the Young Creators Award and the Knight News Challenge?
The Young Creators Award is a subcategory of the Knight News Challenge. If you are 25-years-old or younger and you have an idea that fits the Knight News Challenge goals, you will automatically be part of the Young Creators category. Each year money has been specifically set aside for this award. The category is part of a worldwide effort to get young people more engaged in their communities through digital news and information.
How many entries may I submit?
There is no limit.
I registered on the Apply page, but I didn't get the confirmation e-mail yet.
If you did not receive a confirmation e-mail, please check your spam filter. It was sent from the address "newschallenge (at) newschallenge.org"
What information is used by the judges in evaluating News Challenge proposals? Do the comments really matter?
The public rating and comment system is there to benefit the applicant. It's designed to give the applicant feedback. It enables individuals and organizations interested in the subject to have discussions regarding their projects and helps them improve their ideas, find out about things they might be missing and come up with new ideas or how to use the same project for something else. The discussion benefits both the public viewers and the applicants.
Knight Foundation reviewers are free to read the comments like anyone else, but are charged with using their experience and knowledge to judge how well a proposal meets Knight's criteria. Reviewers judge applications and proposals against the 3 basic criteria:
- Use digital media
- To distribute news and information
- In a geographic determined community (local community)
The public rating and commenting is by no means the only parameter on which we choose the best projects. To choose the best projects what we give more weight to is our panel of experts.
We take the evaluation seriously and the process is very objective. It is interesting and important for us to learn what the public thinks,
but we don't give grants based on the public rating.
We hope everyone is acting in good faith, but we understand that applicants can subjectively rate other entrants projects.
NEW ITEMS
I have registered and have a problem - Where is the APPLY link?
In order to make edits, you only need to go back to the Apply page on your site while logged in, and choose your application from the "Submitted Applications" dropdown.
After you have made the edits to the submitted application, you will have to resubmit the application using the "Submit" option in the edit view.
What do you really mean by "open source"?
By open-source we mean a digital open-source platform that uses a code base that can be used by anyone after the grant period to either replicate your project in their community or to build upon it. You will own your platform, but you will have to share under GPL or creative commons licensing.
If regard to making your entire project open and available to the public we mean the following: You'll need to share the intellectual property you create with the world. If you want to discuss how to create cell phone documentaries, for example, you'll blog about it. If you make pilot cell phone documentaries in a specific city, you'll share any source code and the process for how you created your project. If you create a national alliance of people who make cell phone documentaries, you'll make the technology available to all of them.
The application says it has a limit of 750 characters, but I pasted more and it didn't give me an error.
You can paste over 750 characters, but anything after 750 will immediately be cut off. This count DOES include spaces and tabs.
When will I receive a response? When does the money come?
- Nov. 1 to Dec. 1 we receive full proposals.
- Dec. 1 to January 5 we review/recommend and decline full proposal/ we narrow down the full proposals to a group we call the Top 50 full proposals.
- January 5 we send the top 50 to the final review group
- January 5 to February 13 the final reviewers / review and narrow down the top 50 to their favorite ones.
- February 13 we have the final review session in Miami with all screeners and reviewers. We discuss the top 50 and select the recommended winners.
- February 13 to February 20 we start preparing the grant write-ups to present to the March Board.
- March we present the recommended winners to the Board. Board approves or disapproves funding the recommended winners. If they approve they become the winners. We contact them to tell them the good news.
- Sometime between April and July 2009: We will do the formal announcement sometime between April and July.
I have some friends who are university administrators with a question about indirect costs. What do I tell them?
Knight Foundation Policy on Indirect Costs and Overhead Costs Knight Foundation does not pay indirect administrative fees to grantee organizations. Exceptions may be made on recommendation the KF program staff if it is determined that the grantee organization is providing a necessary service directly related to the grant. Based on the recommendation of program staff, on an individual case basis, Knight Foundation would consider indirect fee payments of up to 10% of a proposed grant.
Supporting Materials
I have extra supporting files to attach. Where do I put them?
You can attach only five supporting documents. Once uploaded you will not be able to delete or replace them.
What kind of supporting materials should I attach? What do the judges really want to see?
The supporting materials or attachments should be any documents you think would add valuable information about your project. Information that would help the reviewers better understand how your idea meets the Knight News Challenge criteria. Past participants have provided documents that range from their logo, to recommendation letter to business plans.
Is my application private? Are my attached files private?
No. All documents you attach to your application will be public. Applications are open and anybody who logs in can comment on them.
In what file formats may I upload supporting documents?
File uploads must be one of the following:
.divx, .aiff, .mpg, .swf, .wav, .asf, .flv, .bmp, .gif, .m4a, .mov, .tif, .aac, .3gp, .qt, .xvid, .doc, .m1v, .jpeg, .mpeg, .wmv, .mp4, .mpv, .aif, .dv, .png, .jpg, .wma, .txt, .der, .avi, .3g2, .mp3