Knight News Challenge 2008: Vancouver stop. We’ve got game.

Last night Susan Mernit ventured North to talk to a group of interested folks about the Knight News Challenge 2008 and how we could apply to get a grant to do cool things for the world.

Kris Krug had graciously offered the Raincity Studios space for the (rainy) evening event and a good nearly two-dozen folks turned out to learn about the Knight News Challenge, what it was about, how to apply, and get tips on potential projects.

What is this all about? Essentially the Knight Foundation (who funds folks like NPR, etc) has a mission over the next few years to give $5 million in grants to people who want to do cool, new, and innovative things surrounding news, information, and discussion.

To apply for the first round you only need to write up a 300 word blurb about your project, but there is a catch, you have to meet these criteria:

Be really innovative. The ediger and “out there” the better
The product is must be released as open source when complete
Serve the public interest/great good
Be based in a real, physical location to start out (no Second Life doesn’t count)

Sounds simple, right? Yeah it’s the simple ones that always get you. Taking a look at past Knight News Challenge winners is a great source of inspiration-not to mention not repeating a past project-and there is a “Garage” to help mentor applicants in their proposals, at least for the first cut.

As you would expect, the Vancouver folks had some really cool ideas. Raul had a great idea about putting pollution info online. There was something about ad hoc GSM networks and fearlesscity.ca has some cool plans for the Downtown East Side.