This year, Unlock is seeking solutions that break down social and technical barriers that prevent people from accessing and contributing to open knowledge. The accelerator focuses primarily on existing power and privilege structures, such as prejudice, underrepresentation, and inequalities. Therefore, technical and explicitly non-technical solutions are also being sought. Specifically, Unlock is focusing on two areas:
- Technologies and tools that make access to and contribution to knowledge easier, more comprehensive and fairer, such as new governance models, concepts for blending data sets, the integration of unconventional knowledge formats into existing networks or the creation of networked knowledge architectures
- Projects that organize information more fairly and offer a sustainable business model for the production, maintenance, and access to knowledge, such as fairer conditions, greater incentives, and fairer remuneration for contributing to free knowledge, more comprehensive representations of the world's diverse knowledge, or the development of Creative Commons standards as alternatives to closed-source business models
Unlock offers participants a four-month program with needs-based coaching to develop their idea into a prototype. The project teams receive ongoing support from coaches and are also networked with each other. They can also draw on a range of experts, from UX design to budgeting to conflict resolution. If needed, participants also receive financial support in the form of a stipend of up to €1,000 per month per team member.
The accelerator program is divided into two sprints: The first sprint focuses on the product development process. This involves analyzing the team's current status and what they want to achieve by the end of the program. In the second sprint, coaches support the project's further development until a minimum viable product is achieved. The teams then present this product at Demo Day on October 27.
These teams can apply for Unlock
Teams of two to five people based in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland are eligible to apply. Teams from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia are also welcome to apply. We are looking for people with an entrepreneurial mindset, a social entrepreneurial spirit, and a concrete idea for their project. Applications are due until May 29, 2022, at www.wikimedia.de/unlock From all submissions, a jury consisting of various Wikimedia employees and some of the coaches who support the program will select five teams to participate in the Unlock Accelerator. The program starts on June 30, 2022.
Further information on topics, procedures and application can be found here.
