Challenge Overview | Featured Projects | How it Works | Final Judging | FAQ

Guidelines:

1.    The FACT Challenge seeks to surface innovative Projects that leverage web and/or mobile technologies that foster collaboration around social justice issues.
2.    NetSquared’s goals for the FACT Challenge remain consistent with our goals from previous challenges.

We want to:

• Increase transparency in the field
• Surface the work of innovative approaches to social justice issues
• Create new opportunities for social innovators to collaborate
• Harness both human and financial capital on behalf of projects focused on social issues

Open Participation:

NetSquared welcomes participation from non-profits, individuals, social entrepreneurs as well as legally defined not-for-profit entities. 

Intellectual Property, Standards, Licensing:
All projects submitted will be governed by the AttributionNon-Commercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States license.

Submission Limits:

Submissions are limited to three (3) Projects per any one (1) organization, NGO, or group.  If you have questions about organizaitonal affiliation of your Project or how to submit, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Conflict of Interest:

Projects funded via NetSquared should follow NetSquared guidelines in Policy and Procedures and be diligent to avoid conflict of interest related to the funding, research, or collaborators on the project.

Final Judging:

We are pleased to announce the participation of the judges below - they all contribute a wealth of knowledge and experience to the FACT Challenge and will serve as excellent judges for final review of the Featured Projects given their networks, vision and understanding of the field. 

Judges

Allyson Kapin - Allyson has been named one of "Top Tech Titans" by the Washingtonian, one of the Most Influential Women In Tech by Fast Company and one of the top 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter by Forbes for her leadership role in technology and social media. As Founding Partner of Rad Campaign she leads the firm’s client and online strategic services. For over a decade Allyson has helped non-profit organizations and political campaigns create dynamic and award-winning websites and online marketing and recruitment campaigns. She works side-by-side with her clients to meet their web needs and maximize their online effectiveness to create real world impact.

Eduardo Bejar - Eduardo is the director of Fundapi.org, an ecuadorian nonprofit organization working with technology projects for social change since 2001. His background is based in computer information systems engineering, Internet and public policies, e-government and citizen participation. He has written different technology related articles for media in Ecuador and updates regularly http://yankana.org, a blog in spanish about technology for social change.

Jeremy Druker - Jeremy was one of the founders of Transitions  (TOL) in 1999 and has been the executive director and editor in chief since then. TOL is a non-profit media development organization established to strengthen the professionalism, independence and impact of the news media and civil society organizations in the post-communist countries of Europe and the former Soviet Union. We seek to fulfill that mission through a combination of journalism and media training programs, and the publication of Transitions Online magazine (www.tol.org). In the process, TOL has become the regional leader in new media training and has recently started to expand into multimedia projects. The latest Colorful but Colorblind - Roma Beyond Stereotypes, a collection of 25 short films about Roma communities in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, can be found here: http://roma.glocalstories.org.

Michał Mach - Consultant, project manager, software designer, analyst and programmer and just regular participant in many projects in NPO sector over last 14 years. Member of Non-profit Trainers Association, occasionally runs trainings for NGOs and informal groups on using technology in advocacy work and planning innovative social projects. Co-founder and board member of Second Hand Bank, first Polish computer recycling project. Currently works on CiviCRM, open source constituent relationship management (CRM) software targeted at non-profit organisations and advocacy groups (http://civicrm.org).

The following voting criteria will determine the Top 15 Featured Projects.

1. Feasibility.

Will people use the tool to collaborate? Is the proposed solution feasible from a technical point of view?

2. Social Justice Potential.

Does this idea educate, organize, or empower people to address a particular social justice issue and does it have potential to make a significant contribution to work on the issue?

3. Likelihood of attracting outside investment and/or interest.

Is this an elegant ICT solution that provides scalable impact for relatively little cost? Will external partners (other human rights actors, venture capitalists, IT companies, etc.) be intrigued by this idea and want to invest in it? Will it provide adequate social or capital return on investment?

4. Innovation.

Does the Project provide an innovative solution? (The idea does not need to be brand new and never tested, but it should feel innovative and primed for success in the proposed environment.)

5. Scalability.

Is the idea replicable and/or scalable in different communities, countries, or settings other than the one addressed in the description?