The initiative seeks to present solutions to problems affecting the distribution channels of NTV’s content, commercial possibilities in new markets and understanding of the consumer market. The solutions sought will improve journalistic standards as well as tapping into the commercial benefit of the improved journalism. The initiative is open to digital creatives, software developers, data crunchers and those alike. There winning ideas will receive UGX 10 million ($4000), an incubation fellowship at Outbox hub and also an opportunity to develop their solutions at NTV’s studios. You can register from the beautifully designed Ideas lab website. Notably, various media houses have enormously benefited from their subsidiary media labs for example The New York Times R&D Lab built, Cascade, a sophisticated data analytics program that helps in predicting their readerships’ online behaviour though documenting every tweet, retweet, and click on every shortened URL from Twitter and Facebook that points back to New York Times content, and then combining that with the browsing logs of what those users do when they land at the Times. Also, Mashable’s Brand Lab helps their clients become content creators and amplify their social media assets. They share some of their favorite work, comment on industry developments and discuss the trends they’re watching. However, it should also be noted that the Vision Group had a stint with it’s media lab that hit a miserable dead end. They sought to build a hyper-local and social platform for a wider content distribution with the help of a legion of developers. Unfortunately, they couldn’t reach a consensus probably due to income disparities, poor industry analysis, cut-throat ambition and lack of mentorship. Image via NTV Ideas Lab
