Articles by

Lucas Hernandez

  • Article

    Exploring the entries in Knight News Challenge: Elections

    Posted on March 24, 2015 by

    The first Knight News Challenge of 2015 opened on Feb. 25 with the question, How might we better inform voters and increase civic participation before, during and after elections? We looked to inspire people to not only submit ideas, but also to contribute to broader discussions on improving our democracy. The challenge was met with an overwhelming level of engagement, resulting in more than 1,000 ideas being submitted to newschallenge.org. Submissions came from an impressive mix of teams. A group of external readers are currently helping us evaluate every submission through April 13. Although the submission window is closed, the  #newschallenge conversation continues. For the second year in a row, Matt Miller (@thisismmiller) of the New York Public Library Labs), analyzed the submissions. Writing Python source code (available on GitHub here), Matt scraped all the submission data from the website, compiled it into a data set and generated several visualizations. Again, City Tracking, a 2010 Knight News Challenge winner, created the map tiles that Matt used to generate the analysis, Stamen’s Toner.
  • Article

    Your last-minute guide for applying to Knight News Challenge: Elections

    Posted on March 18, 2015 by

    Need inspiration for your Knight News Challenge: Elections application? Watch this video and others in our Knight News Challenge: Elections Mixtape. The Knight News Challenge on Elections closes Thursday, March 19, at 5 p.m. ET. We are looking for your ideas to better inform voters and increase civic participation. Here is last-minute help on finalizing your submission.  What do you want for the “Fill in the details” question? This section is for any important information not yet covered in your submission. There is no word limit. However, we do not want you to repeat any information or details about the project mentioned elsewhere. This text will populate the bottom of your submission page. If you have nothing more to add about the project you can mark this section “N/A.” How can I make my project visual? Do I have to? You do not have to make your submission visual, but we strongly recommend it. We anticipate reading hundreds of applications, so having succinct, visual applications helps. That being said, you do not have to create a new image or video. One possibility would be to include a Creative Commons image: http://search.creativecommons.org/. Make sure to credit the image. To include images or videos, go to the “Make it visual” section of the submission and upload your image/video.
  • Article

    Some tips on on applying for Knight News Challenge: Elections

    Posted on March 5, 2015 by

    Photo by Flickr user notsosubtle. The Knight News Challenge on Elections is open through March 19 for your ideas to better inform voters and increase civic participation. It’s your chance to share in more than $3 million. Wednesday, we hosted our first virtual office hours. Below are seven of the most common questions we’ve received - and our answers. (You can also check out our FAQ and application tips) at newschallenge.org. What do you mean by “innovation”? We believe that innovation can come from anywhere: both new and established enterprises, the commercial and nonprofit sectors, as well as individuals. We look for ambition amid existing constraints. Whatever your idea, make sure it pushes boundaries to help people become better informed about the world around them.  And here are some thoughts from Knight President Alberto Ibargüen on the work we do.  
  • Article

    Towards empathetic disruption: Civic tech and doing what works

    Posted on March 4, 2015 by

    Photo by Flickr user Nathan Gibbs. Today, we’re announcing $1 million in new support for Democracy Works, to expand the TurboVote platform and support the launch of Ballot Scout, a tool for local elections officials and voters that uses Postal Service barcode technology to track absentee ballots. We’re particularly excited to be joined by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which is announcing $400,000 in support for Democracy Works. The grant to Democracy Works--the third we’ve made since 2011--is part of our strategy to take advantage of new digital tools to improve the ways in which Americans relate to their government and to one another.
  • Article

    Exploring the entries in Knight News Challenge: Libraries

    Posted on October 16, 2014 by

    We started our Knight News Challenge on Libraries on Sept. 2 with a call for inspiration. We asked the question, How might we leverage libraries as a platform to build more knowledgeable communities? For the second year we used the OpenIDEO platform to facilitate an open and engaging conversation, while ultimately looking to spur more ideas. Next week, we’ll name the semifinalists, but since the challenge closed Sept. 30, we’ve seen a persistence in the energy around libraries. The robust engagement and submissions have made for rich discussion and content for our readers as they tirelessly evaluate each of the 680 proposals. It is not only our readers who have worked to make sense of these proposals. Many who submitted proposals, and others who are just intrigued by the ideas, are still reading, commenting and applauding submissions. One individual, Matt Miller (@thisismmiller) of the New York Public Library Labs, took his interest to the next level and unearthed valuable insight regarding this year's submissions.