16 big ideas to change the world: Vote now

Tweet
Buffer

Tweet
Buffer

Google to award $10 million in Project 10^100 Prize

Voting is open now through Oct. 8 for who you think should win Google’s Project 10^100 Prize.

Google, which launched the program a year ago on its 10th birthday, has committed to awarding $10 million in prizes. Since last year, more than 150,000 idea submissions in 25 languages have poured in. More than 3,000 Google employees have grouped the submissions into 16 overall themes, and now they’ve turned to crowdsourcing, asking you to vote to vote for the most worthy themes. The project’s advisory board will then settle on five projects, Google will ask companies or organizations to submit a request for proposal, and those who impress the board will receive the money.

Here are the categories:

Community: How can we help connect people, build communities and protect unique cultures?
Opportunity: How can we help people better provide for themselves and their families?
Energy: How can we help move the world toward safe, clean, inexpensive energy?
Environment: How can we help promote a cleaner and more sustainable global ecosystem?
Health: How can we help individuals lead longer, healthier lives?
Education: How can we help more people get more access to better education?
Shelter: How can we help ensure that everyone has a safe place to live?
Everything else: Sometimes the best ideas don’t fit into any category at all.

Google posed the question:

Last fall we launched Project 10^100, a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible. Your response was overwhelming. Thousands of people from more than 170 countries submitted more than 150,000 (or around 10^5.2) ideas, from general investment suggestions to specific implementation proposals. As we reviewed these submissions, we started noticing lots of similar ideas related to certain broad topics, and decided that combining the best aspects of these individual proposals would produce the most innovative approaches to solving some very pressing problems.

The result is the list you see below of 16 “big ideas,” each inspired by numerous individual submissions. Which ones should we make happen? You tell us. Your vote for one of these ideas will help our advisory board choose up to 5 projects to fund, at which point we’ll launch an RFP process to identify the organization(s) that are best suited to implementing them.

Thank you to everyone who has chosen to lend your energy to Project 10^100. Your idealism will inspire our own efforts to make these world-changing ideas a reality. So please cast your vote, and help us take this next step toward building a better world.

So look through the 16 “big ideas,” place your vote and let us know here which project you voted for and why. Don’t forget, voting closes next Thursday, Oct. 8.

Google Opens Voting for 10^100 Projects to Help the World (readwriteweb.com)
Google announces Project 10^100 themes (news.cnet.com)
One Year Later, Google’s Project 10^100 Lives! But Overwhelmed Google Needs Your Help. (techcrunch.com)

Sloane Berrent is a cause-based marketing consultant who works with nonprofits and social cause organizations. See her business profile, contact Sloane or leave a comment.