Gary Kebbel is Knight Foundation's Journalism Program Director

When there are only three rules in a contest, each one is critically important. In the $25 million Knight News Challenge, that means all successful applicants must do the following three things:

1) Use digital, open-source technology to 2) distribute news in the public interest and 3) test your idea in a specific, local community.

That means creating a print newspaper won't qualify. Proposing a project purely for entertainment won't qualify. And having a great idea that you haven't figured out how to test in a local community won't qualify.

Another tip is not to mimic past winners. They won because their project was new and innovative and met the three guidelines listed above. If you repeat their project in a different community or with a different type of content, that would be a good project, but not one that necessarily would be funded a second time in this contest.

If you have questions please ask them here, and we will answer them. Also, follow our updates on Twitter at #KNC10

Good luck!