KNIGHT FOUNDATION NEWS CHALLENGE: HEALTH
On August 19th, Knight Foundation launched its latest Knight News Challenge, an open contest to win part of $2.2M for funding a project that responded to this health challenge: How can we harness data and information for the health of communities?
This challenge presented the perfect catalyst to turn the idea shared in my TEDx: Integrity by Design from April 2013 at TEDxBarcelonaChange into a funded initiative. An enthusiastic team formed, and we submitted a proposal: OpenQRS: Open Source Tools to assure the Quality, Reliability and Safety of Health Care Devices on September 17th along with 650 other proposals!!
We are humbled and excited by the enthusiasm since our submission posted. The "applaud" and comments on the platform, tweets and FB posts, have been overwhelming. Within a week, we have over 1000 views for our project. The Knight News Challenge reviewed the entries, and selected 39 semi-finalists.
This challenge presented the perfect catalyst to turn the idea shared in my TEDx: Integrity by Design from April 2013 at TEDxBarcelonaChange into a funded initiative. An enthusiastic team formed, and we submitted a proposal: OpenQRS: Open Source Tools to assure the Quality, Reliability and Safety of Health Care Devices on September 17th along with 650 other proposals!!
We are humbled and excited by the enthusiasm since our submission posted. The "applaud" and comments on the platform, tweets and FB posts, have been overwhelming. Within a week, we have over 1000 views for our project. The Knight News Challenge reviewed the entries, and selected 39 semi-finalists.
WAITING...
On a late dash from Manhattan to Newark, I checked my email every moment that I could ... on the train, on the tram, in the security line... awaiting the email announcing semi-finalists. Nothing, nothing, nothing. On the plane, one last look before powering down for the 5 hour flight to San Francisco. I checked again. Nothing. I sent a text to a friend "We haven't heard anything from Knight yet. It'll be a long 5 hrs." I refreshed and found this message:
SEMI FINALISTS
\o/ We made it to the semifinals! With one week to refine our proposal, we got busy preparing this 30 second video and responses to their questions and to feedback we had received from people. On October 2nd, we submitted our refined proposal. It's been an incredible journey, and we are excited to build on this momentum!
Please check out our submission: bit.ly/openqrs We welcome feedback to strengthen the proposal!
Please check out our submission: bit.ly/openqrs We welcome feedback to strengthen the proposal!
OpenQRS in 30 Seconds from Kate Ettinger on Vimeo.
A REFLECTION ON OPEN CONTESTS
We are grateful to the Knight Foundation for this exciting opportunity to share our proposal publicly. Generally, funding applications to foundations are internal, closed processes. Open contests like the Knight News Challenge fuel the democratization of ideas (enabling small projects or new initiatives the chance to be seen not only by the foundation but also by others), democratization of participation (allowing applications from an open pool of applicants rather than just "people in the know") and democratization of philanthropy (providing opportunities for others to discover and contribute to projects in ways beyond monetary). Most importantly, they provide participants with an opportunity to find collaborators, contributors and additional funders; thereby, making the investment to participate in the challenge beneficial to the initiative regardless of whether they win the "purse."
Open contests have critics. Valid concerns include that the voting system will be gamed by special interests or that the public may not have sufficient understanding of the issue to determine feasibility. Knight News Challenge balances opening the door for new, small and under-resourced initiatives at the outset with a rigorous due diligence process informed by experts during the final phase. This approach affords fresh ideas a chance to be discovered while only funding initiatives that demonstrate a responsible use of philanthropic investment. Knight Foundation's leadership in "Open Contests" provides a framework for philanthropy to engage collaboratively with the public to identify and develop solutions to pressing social issues.
Open contests have critics. Valid concerns include that the voting system will be gamed by special interests or that the public may not have sufficient understanding of the issue to determine feasibility. Knight News Challenge balances opening the door for new, small and under-resourced initiatives at the outset with a rigorous due diligence process informed by experts during the final phase. This approach affords fresh ideas a chance to be discovered while only funding initiatives that demonstrate a responsible use of philanthropic investment. Knight Foundation's leadership in "Open Contests" provides a framework for philanthropy to engage collaboratively with the public to identify and develop solutions to pressing social issues.
We were thrilled to participate in the Knight News Challenge and
we are grateful for the tremendous interest, support and enthusiasm!
UPDATE: October 17: Although we were not selected as finalists, we are thrilled, grateful and enthusiastic about our experience with this open contest. Following posting the project, OpenQRS gained two new phenomenal advisors for our project, Benjamin Stokes, co-founder of Games for Change and Rachel DeSain, Lead Consultant of Flaxworks specializing in emerging technology for health IT.
A snapshot of our success from the Knight News Challenge: in one month, we received over 2300 views of the project and 65 applause! We are excited about interest from appropriate technology device makers and we will be hosting prototype QRSLab game sessions with these product teams over the next two months. Stay tuned at www.openqrs.org and thanks for your support and interest!
A snapshot of our success from the Knight News Challenge: in one month, we received over 2300 views of the project and 65 applause! We are excited about interest from appropriate technology device makers and we will be hosting prototype QRSLab game sessions with these product teams over the next two months. Stay tuned at www.openqrs.org and thanks for your support and interest!
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