Knight News Challenge Winners
Freedom FoneFreedom Fone will provide a voice database where users can access news and public-interest information via land, mobile or Internet phones. In a concept similar to a telephone tree employed by many private companies, users will call in and then dial specific ... Bev Clark
$876,000
(2008 award)PrintcastingPrintcasting will allow individuals to easily create ad-supported, customized publications with a mix of local news and information. The software will help aggregate feeds from news organizations, bloggers or newsletters, for example, so that would-be publishe... Dan Pacheco
$837,000
(2008 award)The News is ComingLocal news reports disseminated through cell phones will help connect an all-black township in South Africa with the white population living in the urban center – giving everyone in Grahamstown equal access to news and information. Articles from the communit... Prof. Guy Berger
$630,400
(2008 award)Sochi Olympics ProjectThe people of Sochi, the Russian resort city hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics, will be able to use the latest online tools to both discuss and influence the impact of the games. A web site and database will allow the community to track and debate how the plans... Alexander Zolotarev
$600,000
(2008 award)Tools for Public Access TVThis project will enable public access TV stations and community technology centers to use common tools to create web sites that enable the transfer of video between the web site and the TV station. Together, public access TV and community technology centers... Tony Shawcross
$380,000
(2008 award)Transparent JournalismWith the copious amounts of information – and misinformation – on the Internet, the public needs more help finding fair, accurate and contextual news. This project will create a system to do just that. The plan: to design a way for content creators to ad... Sir Tim Berners-LeeMartin Moore
$350,000
(2008 award)Spot JournalismSpot Journalism will provide a new way to pay for local investigative reporting by soliciting financial support from the public. Through this project, independent journalists and residents will propose stories, while Spot Journalism uses the Web to seek “mic... David Cohn
$340,000
(2008 award)RadioDrupalDrupal, one of the popular open-source software platforms that publish web sites, will be used to create a turnkey web site for radio news organizations. This content management and publishing system will address the needs of radio news sites, such as creatin... Margaret Rosas
$327,000
(2008 award)News on CellphonesWhile computers can readily access news feeds through the Internet, only the more expensive cell phones have the same capability. This project will make it easy for significantly cheaper models to select and receive news feeds, expanding the news universe for ... Dr. Joel Selanikio
$325,000
(2008 award)Video VolunteersVideo Volunteers, a New York-based nonprofit, will train 100 people in rural India as Community Video Producers. These citizen journalists will produce magazine- style video news reports, typically on local social issues, and show them on widescreen projector... Jessica Mayberry
$275,000
(2008 award)Community News NetworkStudent editors at the UCLA Bruin will create online publishing software geared to mobile editing. College journalists then will be able to use the content management system to remotely assign and edit stories, videos and photos for online college sites. Also... Dharmishta RoodAnthony Pesce
$275,000
(2008 award)Community Radio in IndiaThis project will connect rural radio stations to the Internet by using new software and computer-based FM transmitters. The innovations will significantly reduce the cost of creating the stations in India - from an estimated $50,000 to $2,500. India is issui... Aaditeshwar Seth
$200,000
(2008 award)BeanstockdBeanstockd is a developing idea to encourage green living through an interactive game. Using social networking tools and real-time news and information, players would be able to track their environmental impact, discover how they stack up against neighbors and... Angela AntonySandra Ekong
$40,000
(2008 award)Reporting OnReporters working on similar topics will be able to communicate and share ideas using a social networking tool and a web site created through this project. The site will indicate how many journalists across the country are working on the same issue, such as de... Ryan Sholin
$15,000
(2008 award)SignCastsBrein McNamara will blog about ways to empower deaf people to become citizen journalists. He will write about the digital information needs of deaf people, including his own proposal to integrate a web-based video capture system with the videophones popular a... Brein McNamara
$15,000
(2008 award)The IncluderAndrius Kulikauskas will blog about different methods of getting digital information to rural areas that don’t have Internet access. He will discuss using a “reader,” or a device for writing and reviewing text files stored on any USB flash drive. The dev... Andrius Kulikauskas
$15,000
(2008 award)