Knight News Challenge Ongoing Assessment

Knight News Challenge Interim Review: The Early Winners 2007 & 2008 KF Knight Foundation The Evolution of an Idea: Freedom Fone (2008 winner) A project to create a DIY platform for two-way, phone-based information services, using interactive audio voice menus, voice messages, SMS and polls. Due to pressure from the Zimbabwe government, Freedom Fone's mobile Provides support to Equal Access in Cambodia, Small World News TV TechnoServe, One Economy Corporation, Africa Youth Trust, and more.. phone lines are temporarily suspended. Pilots Inzwa, a phone service focused on news headlines, opportunities and community information. FREEDOM * FONE IT'S FOR YOU First successful models demonstrated Launches Tariro on Top, a micro audio drama at MobileActive and Feminist exchange conferences Used by RiteFM in Ghana to provide targeted services focused on sexual Used by African Farm Radio Research Initiative in Tanzania and Ghana harassment in the to farmers workplace. 2,686 callers make 4,881 calls to listen to the service. Loses crucial code during backup Wins Knight News Challenge Grant V 2.0.1 released with Freedom Fone multilingual services, and multiple voice and leave-a-message menus Version 1.0 released v1.0 v1.5 v1.6 v16.5 v2.0.1 2009 2010 2011 Patterns, Platforms & Products We didn't start the contest with any categories, but found that the winners clustered together in these ways: Mobile News Platforms Local News Citizen Media Aggregators Digital Tools for Public Media Field-Building for Media Innovation Innovative Tools & Practices : News Games The Hacker Journalist Many of the field-building projects are focused on creating graduates with a new hybrid set of skills required to advance the future of news and information.* Big Picture thinker Problem Independent solver Storyteller Wordsmith Contrarian chead> Process- oriented Builder Investigator Chill clothes Programmer Reporter Translator Impactor Info distiller *Loosely based on the life of Brian (Boyer), a programmer bored with creating e-solutions Data visualizer for insurance companies, who got jazzed about journalism and received one of the Digital News Academics (News Challenge Winner 2007) scholarships to attend Northwestern. He now runs the Chicago Tribune's news application team Pragmatic that's built tools to help parents compare school performance, used data to contribute to nursing home reforms and supported other investigations. Journalist 2.0 Continuing to Experiment & Learn This review is part of an ongoing assessment of the News Challenge. We continue to track the progress of 2009, 2010 and (tba) 2011 winners. '07 '08 '09 '10 '11 Stay tuned... KF Knight Foundation www.knightfoundation.org