Welcome Letter

Media connects people to their world, gives voice to their ideas and dreams, and equips them with knowledge to improve their lives and the lives of others. In all these ways, media catalyzes participatory citizenship, on both a local and global scale.

But even in this age of pervasive media, many millions of people marginalized by political and economic barriers lack access to even the most basic tools of information -- thereby depriving them of valuable input and connection, and depriving the rest of the world of their voices.

Ashoka Changemakers hopes to change that by inviting the world’s citizens -- notably you -- to enter Citizen Media: A Global Innovation Competition. What do we mean by this? Well, we’re waiting for you to tell us, but here are some initial ideas for what strong entries might hope to achieve:

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• Give voice to underserved, vulnerable populations, introducing them to media creation and distribution (e.g., crowdsourcing strategies, training to advance digital literacy);
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• Equip journalists and publishers with tools or channels to report important news that otherwise gets missed (e.g., content creation, aggregation and distribution solutions);
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• Advance free speech and privacy protections (e.g., encryption tools to protect the identity of content creators and users);
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• Address the financial sustainability of quality news (e.g., micropayments systems that reward journalists, models for revenue sources); and
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• Help people better navigate information and ascertain content reliability and authenticity (e.g., content sorting and fact-checking tools).

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Got any good ideas yet? We thought you might. Starting on July 13th, 2011, Ashoka Changemakers invites you to share them with your fellow global citizens.

This competition is run by Ashoka with sponsorship from Google.

http://www.changemakers.com/citizenmedia