Knight Prototype Fund: When Storytelling Meets Civic Action

Sixteen winners of the Knight Prototype Fund are set to receive $35,000 to help bring their ideas even closer to fruition. The Knight Foundation on Wednesday announced the most recent winners of its fund, which looks to support early-stage media ideas in an effort to push them closer to a formal launch.

Several of the projects in this round include tools for journalists and publishers to encourage news development, storytelling, and community engagement. DIY StoryCorps, for instance, is a mobile app that lets anyone create do-it-yourself interviews to record people’s stories. Global I-Hub ICIJ is a secure platform to make cross-border collaboration on stories easier. And OpenStreetMap plans to create an OpenStreetMap Plugin for Open Data Kit, which will allow for easier collection of open geographic data, even in places with connectivity issues. Other projects focus on civic action, such as a tool that connects people to charities via news articles and a platform that lets people with chronic illnesses interact with policymakers.

“The Prototype Fund encourages people to test and improve ideas that push the boundaries of media innovation,” Chris Barr, who leads the Knight Prototype Fund, said in a statement. “While they focus on diverse areas, each of these new projects aims to encourage people to contribute to and build more informed communities.”...