Equal Rating Innovation Challenge judges announced

As part of its initiative, Mozilla is asking entrepreneurs, designers, researchers and innovators to propose creative and scalable ideas for connecting more people to the Internet, built on local knowledge and expertise.

The judging panel will comprise the following industry leaders:

• Marlon Parker (South Africa), founder of Reconstructed Living Labs
• Omobola Johnson (Nigeria), honorary chair of the Alliance for Affordable Internet and Partner of TLcom Capital LLP
• Nikhil Pahwa (India), founder at MediaNama and co-founder of savetheinternet.in
• Rocio Fonseca (Chile), executive director of Start-Up Chile

They will join Mitchell Baker (USA), executive chairwoman of Mozilla, on the panel for the Challenge. The judges will be bringing their wealth of industry experience and long-standing expertise from various positions in policy, entrepreneurship, and consulting in the private and public sector to assess the challenge submissions.

“Mozilla seeks to find novel solutions to connect all people to the open internet so they can realise the full potential of this globally shared resource,” said Katharina Borchert, chief innovation officer at Mozilla and one of the initiators of the Challenge.

The Equal Rating Innovation Challenge will support promising solutions through expert mentorship and funding of $250,000 in prize monies split into three categories: Best Overall (with a key focus on scalability), Best Overall Runner-up, and Most Novel Solution (based on experimentation with a potential high reward).

Judging process

The judges will score submissions according to the degree by which they meet the following attributes:

• 25pts: Scalability
• 20pts: Focus on user experience
• 15pts: Differentiation
• 10pts: Ability to be quickly deployed into the market (within 9-12 months)
• 10pts: Potential of the team
• 10pts: Community voting results

The deadline for submission is 6 January 2017. On 17 January, the judges will announce five semi-finalists. Those semifinalists will be provided advice and mentorship from Mozilla experts on topics such as policy, business, engineering, and design to hone their solution.

The semi-finalists will take part in a Demo Day on 9 March 2017 in New York City to pitch their solutions to the judges. The public will then be invited to vote for their favourite solution online during a community voting period from 10–16 March, and the challenge winners will be announced on 29 March 2017.

View the judges here.