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. The first round of 2013, which opens in February, will invite innovators from all disciplines to focus on tools for open government. In 2012, three challenge rounds, each focused on an emerging trend, drew more than 2,500 entries.
Challenge 1 - on NETWORKS: Winners were announced June 18.
Challenge 2 - on DATA: Winners were announced Sept. 20.
Challenge 3 – on MOBILE: Winners were announced Jan. 17.
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.
1. What is your project? [1 sentence]
Tagwhat is the mobile tour guide for the world, geo-locating and delivering the web, social media, and apps in one place to quickly inform and engage mobile users about their immediate surroundings in the context of their personal interests.
2. How will your project use mobile tools and approaches? [2 sentences]
Over the past 20 years, the world has developed billions of pages of Web content, but there continues to be no easy way to deliver this content to real-world settings — where the information would be most meaningful. Tagwhat leverages its proprietary web geo-tagging tools and today’s location-aware mobile devices to passively and actively deliver its massive database of location-relevant content to mobile users.
3. Who will use it and why? [1 sentence]
Travelers, visitors to places, and those who are simply curious about the world around them will use Tagwhat to unlock relevant web and social media content to quickly become a local expert wherever they go while businesses and organizations will leverage Tagwhat to engage mobile users at the places where their content is the most relevant.
4. Please list three ways they would learn about your project.
1. Tagwhat stickers posted at points of interest.
2. Promotion by Tagwhat publishing partners to their audiences.
3. Travel blogs, traditional media, and social media.
5. What connections have you made, or will you make, with others [communities, organizations or networks] about your project? [2 sentences]
Tagwhat has in place publishing relationships with universities, tourism organizations, heritage societies, and others who are eager to deliver their content to engage mobile audiences. Tagwhat will expand its outreach efforts leveraging existing relationships to develop a worldwide community of location-based publishers.
6. What part of the project have you already built? [1-2 sentences, feel free to include links]
Currently, Tagwhat consists of a mobile app (http://www.tagwhat.com/service/qr/redir1) for Google Android and iOS devices (iPhone and iPad), and an on-line publishing interface (http://publish.tagwhat.com).
7. What does success for your project look like? [1-2 sentences]
The goal is to make Tagwhat the ‘go to’ mobile resource for rich interest-based media related to mobile users’ surroundings, or ‘hub’ for location-based content. Behind the scenes, Tagwhat will develop and own a massive database of ‘geo-tags’ and user data, representing the keys to reorganizing the existing web by location and personal user preferences.
8. What resources do you need to succeed? [1-2 sentences]
We would seek to raise a $1M investment from Knight Foundation. With this, we would add developers and key team members to expedite content integration, user and publisher acquisition, and expand our relationships with members of the digital media community.
Additional details:
Please list who is on your team:
Dave Elchoness, co-founder & CEO, attorney and executive.
Angus Shee, co-founder & CTO, mechanical engineer.
Don Cramer, co-founder & Chief Developer, 20+ year software developer and network administrator.
Matt Wade, software developer and web designer.
Sara Fossum, journalism school graduate and publisher relations.
Lauren Walter, journalism school graduate and publisher relations.
Expected number of months to complete project:
The project will be ongoing.
Estimated Project Cost:
Tagwhat is seeking $1M.
Name:
Dave Elchoness
Twitter:
@Tagwhat
Email address:
dave@tagwhat.com
Organization [if applicable]:
Tagwhat, Inc.
City:
Boulder
Country:
USA
How did you learn about the contest?
On-line
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