The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation — sponsor of the MIT Center for Future Civic Media — today announced their 2010 Knight News Challenge winners at the MIT Future of News and Civic Media conference. Together, these winners form another ground-breaking, visionary class of civic media developers, inventors and entrepreneurs.
Video of the announcement by Knight Foundation president Alberto Ibargüen, as well as full descriptions of the funded projects, are available now at newschallenge.org. Please join us in congratulating the winners:
CityTracking, by Eric Rodenbeck, Stamen Design
$400,000
To make municipal data easy to understand, CityTracking will allow users to create embeddable data visualizations that are appealing enough to spread virally and that are as easy to share as photos and videos.
The Cartoonist, by Ian Bogost and Michael Mateas, Georgia Tech
$378,000
To engage readers in the news, this project will create a free tool that produces cartoon-like current event games — the game equivalent of editorial cartoons.
Local Wiki, by Philip Newstrom and Mike Ivanov
$350,000
Based on the successful DavisWiki.org in Davis, Calif., this project will create enhanced tools for local wikis, a new form of media that makes it easy for people to learn and share their own unique community knowledge.
WindyCitizen’s Real Time Ads, by Brad Flora, WindyCitizen.com
$250,000
As a way to help online startups become sustainable, this project will develop an improved software interface to help sites create and sell what are known as real-time ads.
GoMap Riga, by Marcis Rubenis and Kristofs Blaus, GoMap
$250,000
To inspire people to get involved in their community, this project will create a live, online map with local news and activities.
Order in the Court 2.0, by John Davidow, WBUR
$250,000
To foster greater access to the judicial process, this project will create a laboratory in a Boston courtroom to help establish best practices for digital coverage that can be replicated and adopted throughout the nation.
Front Porch Forum, by Michael Wood-Lewis, Front Porch Forum
$220,000
To help residents connect with others and their community, this grant will help rebuild and enhance a successful community news site, expand it to more towns and release the software so other organizations, anywhere can use it.
One-Eight, by Teru Kuwayama
$202,000
Broadening the perspectives that surround U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, this project will chronicle a battalion by combining reporting from embedded journalists with user-generated content from the Marines themselves.
Stroome, by Nonny de la Peña and Tom Grasty, Stroome
$200,000
To simplify the production of news video, Stroome will create a virtual video-editing studio.
CitySeed, by Retha Hill and Cody Shotwell, Arizona State University
$90,000
To inform and engage communities, CitySeed will be a mobile application that allows users to plant the “seed” of an idea and share it with others.
PRX StoryMarket, by Jake Shapiro, PRX
$75,000
Building on the software created by 2008 challenge winner Spot.us, this project will allow anyone to pitch and help pay to produce a story for a local public radio station.
Tilemapping, by Eric Gundersen, Development Seed
$74,000
To inspire residents to learn about local issues, Tilemapping will help local media create hyper-local, data-filled maps for their websites and blogs.
Video of the announcement by Knight Foundation president Alberto Ibargüen, as well as full descriptions of the funded projects, are available now at newschallenge.org. Please join us in congratulating the winners:
CityTracking, by Eric Rodenbeck, Stamen Design
$400,000
To make municipal data easy to understand, CityTracking will allow users to create embeddable data visualizations that are appealing enough to spread virally and that are as easy to share as photos and videos.
The Cartoonist, by Ian Bogost and Michael Mateas, Georgia Tech
$378,000
To engage readers in the news, this project will create a free tool that produces cartoon-like current event games — the game equivalent of editorial cartoons.
Local Wiki, by Philip Newstrom and Mike Ivanov
$350,000
Based on the successful DavisWiki.org in Davis, Calif., this project will create enhanced tools for local wikis, a new form of media that makes it easy for people to learn and share their own unique community knowledge.
WindyCitizen’s Real Time Ads, by Brad Flora, WindyCitizen.com
$250,000
As a way to help online startups become sustainable, this project will develop an improved software interface to help sites create and sell what are known as real-time ads.
GoMap Riga, by Marcis Rubenis and Kristofs Blaus, GoMap
$250,000
To inspire people to get involved in their community, this project will create a live, online map with local news and activities.
Order in the Court 2.0, by John Davidow, WBUR
$250,000
To foster greater access to the judicial process, this project will create a laboratory in a Boston courtroom to help establish best practices for digital coverage that can be replicated and adopted throughout the nation.
Front Porch Forum, by Michael Wood-Lewis, Front Porch Forum
$220,000
To help residents connect with others and their community, this grant will help rebuild and enhance a successful community news site, expand it to more towns and release the software so other organizations, anywhere can use it.
One-Eight, by Teru Kuwayama
$202,000
Broadening the perspectives that surround U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, this project will chronicle a battalion by combining reporting from embedded journalists with user-generated content from the Marines themselves.
Stroome, by Nonny de la Peña and Tom Grasty, Stroome
$200,000
To simplify the production of news video, Stroome will create a virtual video-editing studio.
CitySeed, by Retha Hill and Cody Shotwell, Arizona State University
$90,000
To inform and engage communities, CitySeed will be a mobile application that allows users to plant the “seed” of an idea and share it with others.
PRX StoryMarket, by Jake Shapiro, PRX
$75,000
Building on the software created by 2008 challenge winner Spot.us, this project will allow anyone to pitch and help pay to produce a story for a local public radio station.
Tilemapping, by Eric Gundersen, Development Seed
$74,000
To inspire residents to learn about local issues, Tilemapping will help local media create hyper-local, data-filled maps for their websites and blogs.
