VP/Media Innovation John Bracken explains the 2015 Knight News Challenge on Data from Knight Foundation on Vimeo.

The next Knight News Challenge will open for ideas on Sept. 8 with this question:

How might we make data work for individuals and communities?

In an increasingly data-rich world, we have new opportunities for people to interact with data and technology in ways that improve society. For this challenge, we want to discover ideas that use data to inform and empower people to make decisions about their lives, their democracy and their communities.

New technologies and the open data movement have put data in the hands of more people, giving rise to both challenges and opportunities. We want projects that use data to fuel innovation and new ideas, while protecting the rights of individuals and communities. We’re not prescriptive in our approach; we welcome all kinds of ideas from new ways to collect, analyze, present, interpret and share data, to better journalism and data-enhanced storytelling techniques, to ways to promote transparency, security and privacy.

Challenge winners will receive a share of $3 million in funding to develop their projects.

Here’s what you need to know before the challenge opens for ideas:

• We are interested in ideas from anyone, including journalists, startups, civic hackers, and academics, to media organizations, businesses, nonprofits, government and individuals.
• The challenge will open for submissions on Sept. 8 at 9 a.m. ET and close at 5 p.m. ET on Sept. 30.
• After the challenge closes, we will review every entry we receive, with help from a team of advisers. We will reach out to semifinalists for more information on Oct. 21.
• We will notify finalists on Nov 6.  We will announce winners in early 2016.

In the coming weeks, we will have several in-person and virtual information sessions where you can discuss the topic and ask questions. Keep an eye out for more details here, but this is what we have planned so far:

• Sept. 2: Akron, Ohio
• Sept. 8: New York
• September 9: San Francisco
• Sept. 11: Portland, Ore.
• Sept: 17: Virtual
• Sept: 23: Virtual
• Sept. 29: Virtual

Please visit http://newschallenge.org  starting Sept. 8 to apply, to give feedback on other applications or just to take a look at the ideas. Follow #newschallenge on Twitter or sign up here for Knight News Challenge updates.

Chris Barr is director of media innovation and Nina Zenni is a media innovation associate at Knight Foundation. Email them at [email protected] and [email protected]. Follow Chris on Twitter @heychrisbarr.