It’s that time of year again! There’s just a couple more weeks until the deadline for the third annual round of Knight News Challenge grants, for experimental digital media projects that build or bind a sense of geographic community.
Applications must be submitted by Nov. 1, 2008 — and absolutely anyone, anywhere can apply.
But there’s a good reason to start drafting your application now, if you haven’t done so already: You probably need help thinking your application through. Even if you think you don’t need help, believe me: You do.
Fortunately, News Challenge has lots of help to offer applicants.
The first stop for any serious News Challenge applicant should be the News Challenge Garage. This is where you can get peer reviews of your idea before you finalize your entry, plus mentoring from previous awardees from previous years. (Like me: I’m currently mentoring several prospective projects).
I think this service is extraordinarily valuable and I wish it had been available when I applied for my News Challenge grant back in 2006. Even though my business partner and I did win a grant, we could have been a lot smarter about how we scoped and budgeted our project. Because once you submit your application, you’re stuck with the budget and scope defined there. Getting early input from experienced people certainly would have enhanced our project’s end result.
So far, it doesn’t look like many news organizations are applying for News Challenge grants this year. Again, this contest is open to anyone — including staff journalists and news orgs. I find the lack of news org involvement surprising, since right now so many news orgs are furiously seeking new business options, and this is an excellent opportunity to get seed money for your project (or to expand an existing effort).
…Of course, it’s possible that more news orgs than I’m aware of are applying — they just might not be posting their applications publicly or discussing their ideas in the News Challenge Garage. Which, if so, is almost certainly to their own detriment. I understand the news-biz tendency to want to keep good project ideas under wraps until the launch. But in this case, if you have a really good idea for your community and your news org doesn’t have the money to make it happen, what makes you think your competition is in any better position to jump on it? You might as well go public with your News Challenge idea, get a mentor, and give your entry the best shot possible.
…While there’s still time, that is.
Remember, winning News Challenge entries must:
- Benefit one or more specific geographic communities.
- Serve the public interest.
- Use or create digital, open-source technology as the code base.
- Share the software and knowledge created.
Tidbits contributor Michelle Ferrier raised a good question about exactly what “open source” means in this context — especially since many news orgs are already committed to using proprietary software tools. News Challenge program evangelist consultant Susan Mernit clarified that the code doesn’t need to be open source, but some type of application programming interface (API) or knowledge-sharing that will help others build upon your efforts needs to come from the project.
