The Knight News Challenge accelerates media innovation by funding breakthrough ideas in news and information. Winners receive a share of $5 million in funding and support from Knight’s network of influential peers and advisors to help advance their ideas.
Throughout 2012, innovators from all industries and countries are invited to participate in three challenge rounds, each with focused topics on emerging trends.
Round 1 - on networks - is closed, and the winners will be announced June 18.
Round 2 - on data - will be open May 31 - June 21. We’re looking for new ways of collecting, understanding, visualizing and helping the public use the large amounts of information generated each day. Winners will be announced in late September.
Details on Round 3 will available later this year.
Anyone, anywhere can apply for the challenge - whether for-profit start-ups or non-profit ventures. For more information on a variety of topics - from guidelines for for-profits, on intellectual property licensing, open source software and more - visit our FAQ.
Develop a social network powering farm-to-table traceability for school lunches in Concord, Massachusetts, and beyond.
Traceability and logistics providers are industry-facing, leaving people out of contact with who makes the food we eat and how it affects our bodies, our communities and the environment.
This project connects the farmers, distributors, and schools that provide lunch to 1,400 students each day in Concord, MA. A web-based social network will allow students and their families to see where lunches come from and support direct communication between families, farmers and school administrators.
Consumers want information on the source of food products and accountability for stakeholders in the food system. Pioneering food producers are also seeking an open dialogue with suppliers to provide high-quality, fresh, sustainable food. Since 2009, Sourcemap.com has been used in an ad-hoc way by food professionals to share the sources of ingredients and foster a direct dialogue between their customers and suppliers. Specialized tools can make it easy for school food service administrators to connect to suppliers and consumers and maintain a real-time, trust-based dialogue around school lunch sourcing.
This project is a collaboration between Sourcemap Inc and Alden Cadwell, Chef and Food Service Director for Concord Public Schools. Sourcemap is an MIT Media Lab spin-off dedicated to connecting supply chain stakeholders through online social platforms. Alden Cadwell is a professional chef and champion of local food sourcing with a record of connecting with farmers and other food producers to provide sustainable school lunches to students in Concord’s public schools.
This project integrates existing software, data, and the established network of suppliers who provide food to Concord’s public schools. The software will be based on Sourcemap.com, which links food supply chain stakeholders through a geographic social networking platform. Concord Schools will provide seed data on seasonal food sourcing, and the network will start with the existing food suppliers to the schools and grow from there. The project will consist in research and development of a work-flow and API client integrating the schools’ food sourcing systems into a real-time, public-facing social network connecting the school’s community with food administrators and producers.
Farm-to-Table School Lunch will serve as a live test-bed for a platform that other school districts can use to expand the practice of traceable, sustainable school lunches. It will be free to students and their families and supported by subscriptions and partnerships with major suppliers.
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