14 DAY TRIAL // Google has announced the winners of its ambitious Project 10^100. The five organizations will receive funding from Google to put their ideas into practice.
Two years ago, the company started the project, asking people from around the world to come up with ideas on how to make the planet a better place.
If it's one thing that people don't lack, it's ideas. As the project unfolded, 150,000 were submitted by people from 170 countries.
Of course, having an idea is one thing, making it happen is quite another. So Google selected 16 ideas that had the most promise and once again asked the people to choose their favorites.
"The five ideas that received the most votes are the winners of Project 10^100. Over the past 12 months, we’ve reviewed concrete proposals to tackle these ideas, and today we’re pleased to give a total of $10 million to five inspiring organizations working on solutions to each of these global challenges," Lorraine Twohill, VP of Marketing at Google wrote.
The five big ideas that won funding from Google are:
- Make educational content available online for free; - Enhance science and engineering education; - Make government more transparent; - Drive innovation in public transport; - Provide quality education to African students.
For each of these, an organization has come up with a solid plan and practical means to make them happen. These organizations will share the $10 million Google provided, each getting between $1 million and $3 million.
The company launched the project for its 10th birthday. Initially, it said that the winners will be announced within a few months, but Google went quiet after that. It turned out that the sheer number of suggestions overwhelmed Google which had to spend a year going through all of them.