Project 10100
FAQ
About the Project
Q: What is Project 10100? A: Project 10100 (pronounced "Project 10 to the 100th") is a call for ideas to change the world, in the hope of helping as many people as possible.
Q: Why is Google doing this? A: The short answer is that we think helping people is a good thing, and empowering people to help others is an even better thing. Here's the long answer.
Q: How many ideas are you funding? A: We have committed $10 million to fund up to five ideas selected by our advisory board.
Q. Why the name 10100? A: 10100 is another way of expressing the number "googol," a one followed by one hundred zeroes. Our company's very name expresses our goal of achieving great results through smart technology that starts small and scales dramatically over time to have a tremendous long-term impact. Project 10100 is a similar attempt to produce those kinds of scalable results by harnessing our users' insights and creativity. We don't know what ideas would help the most people. This project's premise is that maybe you do.
Submitting Entries
Q: How do I submit an idea? Can I submit more than one? A: We're sorry. The submission period has closed.
Q: Can an organization submit an idea for this project? A: All ideas must be submitted by individuals. You may submit an idea on behalf of an organization with which you're affiliated, but please note that even if your idea is chosen, we cannot guarantee that your organization will be selected to implement it. Once we've selected up to five ideas for funding, we will use an RFP process to identify the organization(s) that are in the best position to implement them. If you think your organization would be a good candidate for the RFP process, let us know.
Q: What if another person submits an idea that is similar to my entry? A: The purpose of Project 10100 is to identify great ideas and bring them to life. If an idea is selected that is similar to yours, and it succeeds, everybody wins. That's the spirit of this program and we hope all entrants will embrace it.
Q: What do I get if my idea is chosen? A: You get good karma and the satisfaction of knowing that your idea might truly help a lot of people.
Q: What if I forgot to include something on my submission form? A: The form will prompt you to complete all necessary information, but once you've submitted your idea, you won't be able to revise it. Please make sure to review your work carefully before you submit it.
Idea Selection
Q: Why did this take so long (original deadline was mid-January)? A: When we put out our initial call for ideas, we didn't expect so many, over 150,000! Reviewing each idea -- and we really did review each and every idea -- took a long time, and also forced us to revisit how this project would work. Ultimately, we recognized that many of the ideas we'd received were similar and could be strengthened by being combined with other ideas. The result is the top 16 finalist ideas. We know this took a long time and is organized a little differently from what we originally envisioned, but we hope that the solutions we ultimately arrived at will allow the greatest number of our interested users to have a real impact.
Q: Where did these ideas come from? A: All of these ideas were submitted by people around the world to the Project 10100 website in September and October 2008. In all, we received over 154,000 ideas. As described above, we ultimately chose to combine different aspects of numerous specific ideas in order to produce the 16 big ideas that are now posted for public review.
Q: What was the judging process for the 150,000 ideas? Who participated? A: Over 3,000 Google employees joined together to review and judge every single idea-- more than 154,000 ideas in 25 languages. Each idea was reviewed for our five criteria -- reach, depth, attainability, efficiency, and longevity.
Q: Google originally said that users would be able to vote on 100 ideas. Why are there only 16? A: Each of the 16 finalist ideas actually represents a much larger number of related ideas. Ultimately, we recognized that many of the ideas we'd received were similar and could be strengthened by being combined with other ideas to create a new approach to solving the big problems that users wanted to tackle.
Q: Have the facts in each idea submission been verified for accuracy? A: No. We have not verified contributors' specific claims nor explored whether specific ideas could be implemented exactly as described. For more information on how the winning ideas will be implemented, check out this FAQ's Implementation section.
Q: One of the inspirational ideas you posted is the same or similar to the one I submitted. Why am I not listed as a contributor? A: Early in the submission process, we noticed that many of the best ideas were being explored by hundreds of people, which resulted in numerous similar submissions. Unfortunately, with 154,000 we may have missed some people who submitted similar ideas, despite our best efforts. Thank you for submitting, and congratulations on having a really good idea.
Q: What if I know of an organization that's working on one of these ideas already? A: We plan to partner with the organization(s) that we and the advisory board believe are in the best position to implement the selected ideas.
Q: If an idea is selected for funding, what do the contributors who inspired that idea get? A: Good karma and the satisfaction of knowing that their ideas truly might help a lot of people.
Q: How will you decide which ideas to fund? A: All the ideas that people submitted were reviewed by Google employees, whose opinions helped inform which ideas were selected and posted for public consideration. Now we're asking the public to vote for the ideas you think are the best. The advisory board will use your votes to select up to five final ideas for funding.
Q: Who is on the advisory board? A: The advisory board will be composed of five to seven individuals known for their expertise in the submission categories.
Q: What criteria will be used to select the winning ideas? A: The following five criteria will be considered by the advisory panel in evaluating and selecting the winning ideas:
Reach: How many people would this idea affect?
Depth: How deeply are people impacted? How urgent is the need?
Attainability: Can this idea be implemented within a year or two?
Efficiency: How simple and cost-effective is your idea?
Longevity: How long will the idea's impact last?
Voting
Q: How many ideas can I vote for? A: You can vote for one idea.
Q: I'd like to change my vote. Can I vote more than once? A: We can accept only one vote per person. However, you can change your vote up until the end of the voting period on October 8, 2009. At that point, however, only your most recent vote will be considered.
Q: You don't require a secured sign-in to cast votes? Should I be concerned about fraudulent voting? A: Consistent with the spirit of this project, we decided to appeal to the goodness in people and designed the voting platform to allow everyone to participate without having to sign in to a Google Account. However, we reserve the right to discount any votes that we deem invalid. Note also that the public vote will be used to inform the advisory board's decision, but it will ultimately be up to the advisory board to select the ideas that will actually be funded.
Implementing the ideas
Q. How will Google implement these ideas? A: Once we've announced up to five ideas for funding, we'll begin the process of identifying the organization(s) that are in the best position to help implement the selected ideas.
Q: Will the ideas be implemented exactly as described? A: Our primary goal is to give the winning ideas the greatest chance of success in their goal of helping a lot of people. While we believe each of these ideas has the potential for excellence, we'll be partnering with organizations with relevant expertise to implement them. As such, we'll be open to their suggestions as to how to improve the ideas to increase the probability of success.
Q: How involved will Google be in the implementation of the ideas? A: We didn't focus on ideas that Google would implement alone; instead, we looked for ideas whose implementation will required another organization's expertise or resources. These organizations will be the recipients of the funding grants.
Q: I know an organization that I believe can implement one of the final ideas. What should I do? A: Once we've selected up to five ideas for funding, we will reach out to relevant organizations to participate in an RFP process. If you think your organization would be a good candidate, let us know.
Video guidelines
Q: Why are you not showing the videos that users submitted relating to the 16 big ideas? A: Since each of the 16 big ideas represents several hundred user-submitted ideas, we decided not to include videos on the voting site. However, you can see excerpts from many video submissions in our new Project 10^100 video. You can also find more related user videos by searching on YouTube.