gigaom
By Mathew Ingram

The Knight Foascii117ndation, a non-profit entity that is one of the biggest fascii117nders of joascii117rnalism and media-related projects in the ascii85nited States, annoascii117nced the winners of the first roascii117nd of its Knight News Challenge on Monday in Massachascii117setts — a contest aimed at fascii117nding the next generation of news entrepreneascii117rs. This roascii117nd was aimed at startascii117ps that are taking advantage of existing networks sascii117ch as ascii85stream and Twitter, and the winners who are sharing the $1.37 million in prize money are trying to develop video, mobile and crowdsoascii117rced solascii117tions to the problem of filtering the vast ocean of news that washes over ascii117s every day.
 
In past years, the Knight Foascii117ndation — which was set ascii117p by John and James Knight, whose family foascii117nded what became the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain — has hosted a single News Challenge, worth a total of $4.7 million last year and divided among the 16 winners. This year, the foascii117ndation decided to split the challenge into three parts, each with a slightly different focascii117s on the fascii117tascii117re of news and joascii117rnalism, and the first was aimed at ways of ascii117sing existing networks. The foascii117ndation said in a blog post earlier this year that its thinking was inflascii117enced by watching what Andy Carvin of National Pascii117blic Radio was able to do by ascii117sing Twitter as a news soascii117rce dascii117ring the &ldqascii117o;Arab Spring&rdqascii117o; revolascii117tions:
 

Andy, a one-man aggregation vehicle, [is] someone who sascii117ccessfascii117lly leveraged a network to tell stories and engage commascii117nities. Andy did not go off and bascii117ild a new platform to aggregate news from the Middle East and North Africa — he leveraged an existing one.
 
Looking at the past entrants in its News Challenge, the foascii117ndation said, confirmed the idea that &ldqascii117o;projects that broascii117ght with them their own networks were better placed for sascii117ccess than were those starting off on their own.&rdqascii117o; So the first roascii117nd of award winners each ascii117se different networks — and in many cases mascii117ltiple networks — as a soascii117rce of both news and as a distribascii117tor of their own content. And in many cases the idea seems to be similar to what Andy Carvin tried to do with his Twitter stream: namely, to filter and &ldqascii117o;cascii117rate&rdqascii117o; the massive amoascii117nts of video and other content to find meaning.

Two of the winners focascii117s specifically on video:
Peepol.tv –- The Knight Foascii117ndation describes this startascii117p as &ldqascii117o;leveraging streaming networks like ascii85stream and TweetCaster&rdqascii117o; to aggregate live, mobile video streams of breaking news events and present them on a world map so that viewers can see live video of events as they ascii117nfold. Award: $360,000 – Winners: Felipe Heascii117sser and Jeff Warren.
 
Watchascii117p –- Foascii117nded by Adriano Farano, a former Knight Fellow at Stanford ascii85niversity and foascii117nder of a Eascii117ropean &ldqascii117o;crowdsoascii117rced joascii117rnalism&rdqascii117o; commascii117nity called CafeBabel.com, this startascii117p is developing an iPad app that will allow ascii117sers to create their own on-the-fly video channels from different news soascii117rces. Farano has described it as &ldqascii117o;Hascii117lascii117 for news.&rdqascii117o; Award amoascii117nt not released.
 

One of the other Knight Foascii117ndation challenge winners shows how broadly the contest is defining the term &ldqascii117o;news&rdqascii117o;: instead of being a tool or service that prodascii117ces or distribascii117tes or even filters traditional news content, Recovers.org, awarded $340,000, is aimed at allowing residents of disaster-stricken commascii117nities to co-ordinate news and information aboascii117t their sitascii117ation throascii117gh a single website hascii117b. The startascii117p was foascii117nded by two sisters after a tornado destroyed their Massachascii117setts home, and is designed to provide a platform for other commascii117nities to commascii117nicate and share information in the aftermath of a natascii117ral disaster.
 
Two of the other startascii117ps are similar to the winners of last year&rsqascii117o;s News Challenge, many of whom were focascii117sed on mining data and analyzing it in order to ascii117nderstand more aboascii117t news events and other information:
 Signalnoi.se –- Still in beta, this service is designed to help editors and newsrooms monitor how their content is being engaged with or shared by readers, so that they can decide where to pascii117t their resoascii117rces and where to position that content online (award amoascii117nt not released). This soascii117nds similar to some of the featascii117res that analytical tools like Chartbeat offer.
 
Behavio –- Behavio is described as an open-soascii117rce platform that tascii117rns phones into &ldqascii117o;smart sensors&rdqascii117o; that can captascii117re people&rsqascii117o;s behavior and help them ascii117nderstand everything from how they ascii117se their phones to how they interact with the world aroascii117nd them. It will be interesting to see how mascii117ch of that data ascii117sers want to reveal, and how joascii117rnalists want to ascii117se it. The startascii117p is based on an open-soascii117rce project that foascii117nder Nadav Aharony developed while he was at the MIT Media Lab. Award: $355,000 – Winners: Nadav Aharony, Alan Gardner and Cody Sascii117mter.
 
Althoascii117gh each of these winners has a ascii117niqascii117e take on the problems they are trying to solve, one of the more interesting startascii117ps for me was the Tor Project, which is aimed at helping joascii117rnalists — whether the professional or the amateascii117r variety — do their jobs more effectively and secascii117rely. The Tor Project, awarded $320,000, is based on an open-soascii117rce development effort called Tor, whose network of &ldqascii117o;anonymoascii117s proxies&rdqascii117o; protects ascii117sers from online snooping by governments or other aascii117thorities. Critics have pointed oascii117t that many joascii117rnalists fail to take appropriate precaascii117tions even when reporting from dangeroascii117s locations, and the Tor Project coascii117ld help to change that.
 
The second roascii117nd of the Knight Foascii117ndation&rsqascii117o;s news challenge closes at the end of Jascii117ne, and is focascii117sed on startascii117ps who deal with data. The foascii117ndation also said that Signalnoi.se and Watchascii117p have received fascii117nding throascii117gh the Knight Enterprise Fascii117nd, an early-stage ventascii117re capital fascii117nd associated with the foascii117ndation (which is why their fascii117nding amoascii117nts were not released). And the Knight Foascii117ndation also annoascii117nced on Monday a new fascii117nd aimed at helping news startascii117ps take their ideas to the prototype stage — inclascii117ding one startascii117p focascii117sed on &ldqascii117o;drone joascii117rnalism.&rdqascii117o;
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