Go Forth and Innovate
Pass the word to students and other young innovators — deadlines are approaching for two grant programs that fund innovative projects in digital media.
Closing first are the “young innovator awards” for HASTAC’s “digital media and learning” grants. The theme is participatory learning, which doesn’t necessarily mean journalism. But a project involving participatory learning about news or journalism might well qualify. Applicants must be 18 to 25 years old, though HASTAC also has a similar grant program that is not limited to young people. Submission deadline is Oct. 15
Two weeks later, applications close for the third annual Knight News Challenge contest, which will award up to $5 million to promising digital media experiments. Winning entries must have three elements: “use of a digital media; delivery of news or information on a shared basis to; a geographically defined community.” Anyone can apply, but people 25 or younger are eligible for a special “young creators” category.
A large crowd turned out yesterday at the Online News Association conference in D.C. to hear the Knight Foundation talk about what it’s looking for this year. Innovation was the short answer.
Gary Kebbel of the Knight Foundation said 3,000 ideas were submitted last year and went through a multi-tiered screening process. Some 447 applicants were invited to submit full proposals, which got winnowed to 64 finalists. Their ideas got submitted to the final review panel, which picked 17 winners.
The deadline to apply this year is Nov. 1. So if you have an idea, go for it!