Techdirt. Stories filed under "prizes" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "prizes"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Thu, 4 Apr 2013 03:44:54 PDT FTC Awards $50,000 Prize For Ideas On Killing Robocalls Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130403/18154622566/ftc-awards-50000-prize-ideas-killing-robocalls.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130403/18154622566/ftc-awards-50000-prize-ideas-killing-robocalls.shtml declared "Rachel from Cardholder Services" as enemy number one -- referencing the all too common spammy robocaller scams that many of us have received on our phones. It has now awarded two $25,000 prizes out of 744 entries in ways to help block such robocalls.
According to the FTC, Serdar Danis and Aaron Foss will each receive $25,000 for their proposals, which both use software to intercept and filter out illegal prerecorded calls using technology to "blacklist" robocaller phone numbers and "whitelist" numbers associated with acceptable incoming calls. Both proposals also would filter out unapproved robocallers using a CAPTCHA-style test to prevent illegal calls from ringing through to a user.
Of course, now the followup questions: will these solutions actually be put in place and work? And how long will it take for robocallers to route around these solutions?

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]]> die-rachel-from-cardholder-services,-die http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20130403/18154622566 Thu, 21 Feb 2013 23:02:00 PST Congress & Silicon Valley Billionaires Separately Launch Contests To Drive Forward Innovation Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20130221/03362922053/congress-silicon-valley-billionaires-separately-launch-contests-to-drive-forward-innovation.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20130221/03362922053/congress-silicon-valley-billionaires-separately-launch-contests-to-drive-forward-innovation.shtml nationwide technology contest for students, encouraging them to develop brand new apps for mobile devices. The hope is that it will help more students not just learn to code, but to learn that they enjoy it and are interested in learning more and going into the technology field. While this may be a "small" program, it's good to see general encouragement towards having people learn to code at a young age.

On the other end of the spectrum, three of Silicon Valley's richest techies, Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin and Yuri Milner, have teamed up for a much larger program a "Breakthrough Prize" for life sciences that will award 11 grants of $3 million each year for major breakthroughs in science.

These are two different approaches towards encouraging more innovation in technology and sciences -- one at the "low" end and one at the "high" end -- but it will be interesting to watch how these kinds of incentive programs develop over time. It would be great to also see more "innovation prizes" that offer up rewards for reaching specific goals, rather than the sort of random "we pick a list of winners" that the Breakthrough Prize functions under. Still, more incentives for innovation can only be a good thing.

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]]> seems-like-a-good-idea http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20130221/03362922053 Thu, 9 Aug 2012 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Prestigious Prizes Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100914/12171311011/dailydirt-prestigious-prizes.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100914/12171311011/dailydirt-prestigious-prizes.shtml
  • The first round of the Fundamental Physics Prize has been awarded to 9 physicists -- handpicked by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner to receive $3 million each. The Milner Foundation prize is a little more than double the value of the Nobel prize in the same category (which is worth about $1.2 million), but is the prestige of the Nobel greater? [url]
  • The Kavli Prizes started in 2008 to award million-dollar prizes in astrophysics, neuroscience and nanoscience. The Kavli Foundation was started by Norwegian businessman and philanthropist, Fred Kavli. These Kavli prizes are not as well-known as the Nobel, but the Swedes don't have a monopoly on awarding scientific medals. [url]
  • The Crafoord Prize tries to complement the Nobel prizes by picking significant achievements in fields that the Nobel ignores: astronomy and mathematics, biosciences, geosciences or polyarthritis research. The very specific prize for rheumatoid arthritis research was instituted because Holger Crafoord suffered from the disease, but it's only awarded by a special committee that decides when such an honor is warranted. [url]
    • If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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    ]]>     urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100914/12171311011     Wed, 7 Dec 2011 15:41:46 PST Making AIDS Drugs Affordable With Prizes, Not Patents Glyn Moody http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111205/02251016969/making-aids-drugs-affordable-with-prizes-not-patents.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111205/02251016969/making-aids-drugs-affordable-with-prizes-not-patents.shtml
    One riposte to this criticism is that such high prices are needed in order to pay for costly research, but as Techdirt has noted before, that's just a myth. Another is that even if the system has its problems, there's no other way. But there is. In both the US and EU, the idea of replacing pharma patents with pharma prizes is gaining adherents.

    One of the early attempts to do that came from Senator Bernie Sanders. At the time, we were rather sceptical because of the bureaucracy that seemed to be involved in this $80 billion scheme. Now he's back with a slimmed-down version of his idea:
    I introduced a bill in the Senate that would test this new approach on drugs developed to treat one disease: HIV/AIDS. The measure (S. 1138) would eliminate legal barriers to generic competition for HIV/AIDS drugs and reward innovation directly, through a $3 billion a year prize fund.

    < ...>

    The prizes would be funded by the federal government and private health insurers in an amount proportionate to their share of the HIV/AIDs drug market.
    Sanders claims the savings would significant: he hopes that the $10 billion US market for AIDS drugs could be supplied at generic prices for between $500 million to $1.5 billion. He also notes other benefits:
    It will give larger rewards for drugs that improve healthcare outcomes and smaller or no rewards for duplicative, "me-too" drugs that are medically insignificant. It also would eliminate incentives to engage in wasteful marketing activities. Prize fund rewards will be based on evidence that drugs actually work and work better than alternatives.
    Those "me-too" drugs and the huge marketing efforts that have to be put behind them to get them used instead of similar products from competitors are further symptoms of the patent system's failure to promote true innovation. The present scheme still leaves the problem of how to decide when drugs work "better than alternatives," and how much to pay for them, but at least the field has been narrowed down, which should make judgements easier.

    As with his previous proposal, Sanders' latest bill doesn't stand much chance of being realized in the current political climate. But it's good to hear a US senator framing the issue in terms of patent monopolies and their distorted pricing:
    The cost of the prize fund would be considerably less than the cost of buying drugs at monopoly prices.
    Once people recognize that patents (and copyright) are monopolies, with all the disadvantages and abuses that implies, they might want less of them.

    Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and on Google+

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    ]]>     monopolies-don't-lower-prices http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20111205/02251016969     Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Video Challenges Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111014/13295416368/dailydirt-video-challenges.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111014/13295416368/dailydirt-video-challenges.shtml
  • Create your own Public Service Announcement on how technology has made an impact on creativity. There's a $1000 prize available, and it's due on October 28th, 2011. (Oh yeah, and you can keep the copyright to your submissions for this one because we're sponsoring it!) [url]
  • The USDA has a Fruits&Veggies contest looking for a 30-second video on how to add more plants to your diet. The first prize is $1500, and the submission period ends November 15, 2011. [url]
  • Submit a video on the theme of Unlikely Innovation here. The winner receives $5000, and it's due on December 30, 2011. [url]
  • To find other interesting links for entrepreneurial folks, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  


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    ]]>     urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20111014/13295416368     Thu, 14 Apr 2011 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: The Field Of Open Innovation Is Still Wide Open... Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110214/12450613088/dailydirt-field-open-innovation-is-still-wide-open.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110214/12450613088/dailydirt-field-open-innovation-is-still-wide-open.shtml Netflix Prize, and generally, when there's a really interesting concept that seems to catch on, there are plenty of copycats ready to try their hand at reproducing success. Here are a bunch of open innovation marketplaces that have the same basic idea -- and there are plenty others -- but we're still waiting on one player to really stand out. By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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    ]]>     urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110214/12450613088     Tue, 25 Jan 2011 04:05:07 PST Winner Of $10k From Apple Hung Up, Assuming It Was A Prank Call Or A Sales Call Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110124/03243012788/winner-10k-apple-hung-up-assuming-it-was-prank-call-sales-call.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110124/03243012788/winner-10k-apple-hung-up-assuming-it-was-prank-call-sales-call.shtml it actually turned out to be real. All I can say is kudos to Ms. Davis for recognizing just how unlikely the story was... and for then taking the second call and realizing it was actually true.

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    ]]>     well-trained http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110124/03243012788     Wed, 22 Dec 2010 17:00:00 PST DailyDirt: Many Hands Make Light Work... Prove It For $1M? Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101213/12505212256/dailydirt-many-hands-make-light-work-prove-it-1m.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101213/12505212256/dailydirt-many-hands-make-light-work-prove-it-1m.shtml
  • Got an algorithm for predicting when people are going to need to be admitted to the hospital? There's a prize for that. A cool $3M for this "Netflix-Prize" wannabe. [url]
  • The US DoE is offering $30M for research that could replace gas and diesel with advanced biofuels. The catch is you have to do it without changing existing vehicle or fueling infrastructure. [url]
  • If you had an idea to stop the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, there was a contest to collect ideas. It was mostly a publicity stunt, though, since BP was already accepting suggestions from anyone at the time. The IP rights of the submitted suggestions is a bit concerning, too. [url]
  • Google eventually gave away $10M for its Project 10^100 challenge. But it wasn't easy to pick the winners. [url]
  • There's still time to enter a video contest for explaining science to a high school audience. The winner gets a nice camera... which is kind of a weird prize for a contest that requires a camera to enter. [url]


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    ]]>     urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101213/12505212256     Fri, 26 Oct 2007 18:14:17 PDT Bill Proposed To Make All Pharma Patents Public Domain Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071026/024513.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071026/024513.shtml pharmaceutical patents, since pharma is often area that's a sticking point for fans of the patent system. There are a number of reasons why patents in the pharmaceutical industry don't make sense, despite protests from many. Studies have shown that patents are actually holding back the development of new drugs, making research more difficult and skewing research efforts away from what's most important for helping keep people healthy, to what's patentable. Nobel Prize winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, for years has been talking about how patents harm medical innovations. One of his proposed solutions is to set up a bounty system for important cures -- and it appears that at least someone in Congress thinks this is a decent idea. Against Monopoly points us to the news that Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed a law in Congress that would set aside $80 billion a year to give to pharmaceutical companies in exchange for putting their patents in the public domain, in order to create competition for developing the drugs.

    First of all, there's almost no chance that this proposed bill goes anywhere, so any discussion over the pros and cons isn't likely to make much of a difference. There are some interesting ideas set forth by the bill, but in the long run, it's not a very good idea and would likely fail for a number of easily predicted reasons. What I do like about it is the idea of encouraging competition within the drug space, so that the pills may be more affordable to a wider audience. Competition tends to be a good thing, and it can also create more incentives for real innovation.

    Unfortunately, just about everything else about this bill would likely cause problems. It's not entirely clear how this bill gets funded. $80 billion is pretty significant chunk of change. If the plan actually worked, and created new, more affordable drugs that saved many more lives, you could make a compelling argument that the net benefit to the economy would far outweigh the $80 billion (see Murphy and Topel's research for support on that). However, it's still not going to be easy to get people to buy into it. More importantly, it's not entirely clear how you'd allocate this money fairly. Any system like this where the gov't is giving away money is going to be gamed by the pharma companies in one way or another. It'll be so lucrative that it will be nearly impossible not to have the system gamed -- especially when it's going to involve a bunch of bureaucrats trying to determine the value of a specific drug. Finally, the bill seems to be entirely focused on pharmaceuticals -- which is part of the problem today. With so much healthcare policy focused on pharma, people forget that new technologies may start to make pharmaceuticals obsolete. Then we're left with an $80 billion subsidy for an industry that should be going away. I'm all for the economic incentives that come from innovation prizes, but building a huge mis-targeted gov't bureaucracy around them seems risky. Really, it seems to just be replacing one system of gov't subsidies with a different one, and that hardly seems likely to fix the problems currently facing the healthcare space.

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    ]]>     well,-that-would-shake-things-up... http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20071026/024513     Tue, 4 Sep 2007 03:46:00 PDT Prize Insurance Puts A Price On Conventional Wisdom Joseph Weisenthal http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070830/074450.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070830/074450.shtml X-Prize competition, we've seen more and more interest in this model as a way to spur innovation. However, there are still a lot of questions about the competition model, in terms of efficacy and utility for private industry. While businesses are interested in the concept, the exact model remains unclear. Economist Alex Tarbarrok relates an interesting point about how the X-Prize was funded. Apparently, the group behind it didn't actually raise the prize money, but rather it bought an insurance contract that would pay off in the event that someone actually won. And who wrote the insurance contract? None other than the established experts in the field: Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas. It just so happened that these companies thought the prospect of a successful launch was basically nil, so they gave the organization a very generous price on this insurance contract. The fact that the prize was ultimately claimed is a good indication that even the established leaders in a field don't always have the best grasp of what advances are just around the corner. It also suggests a possible business model, whereby middlemen attempt to arbitrage the disparity between what the establishment deems possible and what individual inventors think they can accomplish.

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    ]]>     what-a-deal http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20070830/074450