Changemakers

This is the first of 3 posts I plan to make in quick succession on some of those "other" innovation prizes. These aren't space prizes, and not all of them are technical in nature - but then again some of the barriers the space prizes attempt to break down are more legal, regulatory, market, social, and financial than technical, too. They all involve prizes and competition featuring innovation of one sort or another. I think it's a good idea for people interested in space prizes to see what's going on in innovation competitions for other industries, and vice versa.

The first set are from Changemakers, which I mentioned in a recent post. They have several prize competitions running and planned:

The Geotourism Challenge - From the overview: National Geographic is committed to protecting the world's distinctive places. To further our mission, we welcome you to the global Geotourism Challenge: Celebrating Places/Changing Lives, the first of three annual collaborative competitions in partnership with Ashoka's Changemakers.

The goal of the Geotourism Challenge is to identify and showcase innovators-individuals and organizations- that support the approach known as geotourism: tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place-its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents.

Ending Global Slavery: Everyday Heroes Leading the Way - Again, from the overview: Humanity United and Changemakers are launching a global online competition to identify innovative approaches to exposing, confronting and ending modern-day slavery. We hope you will join us. Between April 2nd and June 18th, 2008, we invite you to propose ways to end this worldwide crisis and create a universal standard of human dignity.

Banking on Social Change – Seeking Financial Solutions for All - They don't present the details yet: Citi and Changemakers are parterning to launch a global search for innovations around financial transactions for social change. Learn more about the competition beginning in July 2008.