We are looking for innovative thinkers from all industries and sectors who are passionate about designing for digital thriving.

You may be a gamer reimagining a better experience for yourself and your friends, a community moderator who’s seen it all, a mental health expert with an understanding of the impact of digital engagement, a designer or developer who’s looking for mentorship to help amplify your voice and bring your idea to life, a parent who thinks about the safety of their child online or even an industry outsider who has a fresh perspective on how to redefine what good looks like online. The primary participant submitting the proposal must be at least 18 years old.

We especially invite participation from underrepresented populations in the gaming or digital design industry, including people of color, people who identify as women or non-binary, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

This is a purposefully open invitation. We’re casting the net wide to capture ideas at every stage, of any scale, from around the world. For this reason, Google Translate is built into this platform, so users can select their preferred language to view the text, including the submission form. Note: All answers on the submission form must be provided in English.

Individuals, teams of individuals, and legal entities are all welcome to participate. Some geographic restrictions apply. For contest rules, including eligibility requirements, please see the full Terms & Conditions. 

Building off the Designing for Digital Thriving project by Fair Play Alliance and Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, we’re excited to use this challenge to surface approaches that make it easy for anyone to design online spaces that help individuals, groups, and communities truly thrive in today’s connected world.

With an estimated 60% of the world’s population being online and much of that connected to social media, a large part of the  current human experience is a digital one.  Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, said that the web was designed “...to help people work together… to support and improve our weblike existence in the world.” With that in mind, we’re looking for proposals at every stage and from all around the world that share in our dream to live in a world where:

• People can be their authentic, best selves online

• Every game and digital platform is a respectful and welcoming experience 

• Connecting and engaging with others online leads to accomplishments that meaningfully contributed to a healthy society and a full life

Proposals can be designed for the public, individual creators, companies, parents, educators, players and more.  These can be ideas specific to a particular group or broader proposals that can eventually be customized.  See our evaluation criteria tab for more detail.

We have landed on three themes that we think this challenge can be most impactful in Designing for Digital Thriving. To inspire your thinking, we’ve provided some prompts under each theme, though submissions do not need to be tied to these exact prompts. 

Theme 1:  Welcoming and Supporting Underrepresented Voices 

• How might we give agency to content creators who have faced systemic discrimination and harassment?

• HMW support diversity and inclusion with the tools for tolerance and compassion that are often muted in online spaces or interfered with because of aspects of how we are forced to interact?

• HMW we encourage safe connection within and across identities?

• HMW enable all individuals to feel safe showing up as their authentic selves?

Theme 2: Fostering Healthy and Resilient Digital Spaces

• How might we equip communities to self-bolster and regulate?

• HMW provide spaces for people to learn about and access just-in-time mental wellness supports?

• HMW understand and frame awareness and consent for different behaviors and cultures?

• HMW foster the academic discipline of creating better places for humans to thrive in digital spaces?

Theme 3: Building a Digital Future for Youth, Kids and Families

• How might we re-think quality with parents beyond “screen time”?

• HMW create moments of bonding for families with young esports participants?

• HMW think about communities with more nuance to the developmental stages of children?

• HMW foster parent-child interactions in digital spaces?

Top Proposals will be announced on or around November 17, 2022. As a Top Proposal Winner, you will receive:

• Funding Award: up to $50,000 to each of the Top Proposal Winners as a cash prize.

• Media coverage and visibility: Throughout the Challenge, participants will be elevated through a variety of media and channels, including an extensive partner media, social media, website, and email campaign. 

• Exposure to Experts: All submissions and participants will be visible to experts across a wide range of industries, academia, policy organizations, and sponsor partners.

Promising Ideas or Notable Mentions submissions will be included in the website and will be visible to experts across a wide range of industries, academia, policy organizations, and sponsor partners. Additionally proposals may be refined, developed and considered for incorporation into the Design for Digital Thriving Playbook led by Fair Play Alliance and Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. You will be contacted directly for approval if that is the case. 

A minimum of three (3) potential Prize winners will be eligible to receive cash prizes of at least $5,000 USD each (the “Prize”). Program Entities may award one or more Entries a Prize in excess of $5,000 USD in their discretion, based on the judging results. The maximum total Prize pool across all winners is $200,000 USD.

We’re glad that you’re interested in submitting to the Designing for Digital Thriving Challenge and we can’t wait to see your proposal. We know that thinking bold and systemically isn’t easy, so we designed the submission form to guide your thinking. Before sitting down to complete the form, we recommend reading the Themes to Consider tab, the Digital Thriving tab and the submission form itself.

Some of the questions you will find on the submission form require thinking big about the impact your proposal might have. Take time to think about and research your answers. You may want to speak with people who could be impacted by your proposal, crowdsource input or dig into reports, frameworks and resources shared in our Inspiration section. We’ll be sharing resources, hosting inspirational events as well as posting about community office hours and mentorship session throughout the open call period to inspire and guide you. 

Keep in mind that you can edit your submission up until the deadline (November 1 at 5:00 PM Eastern Time), even if you’ve already published it—so don’t hesitate to publish so that others can comment and build on your proposal. There is a distinct advantage to submitting early: you can engage with other participants, spark new partnerships, provide and receive feedback, and even find new team members. Additionally, you can browse other submissions to seek inspiration. 

Print or make a copy of this Google Document version of the submission form to work and collaborate with others in your team both online and offline.

For this challenge, you will be asked to answer the question:

How might we design healthy, inclusive digital spaces that enable individuals and communities to thrive?

Inspiration + Submission Phase

• After creating an account, feel free to start browsing the Inspiration tab to see what might nudge your thinking.  You're also invited to add content to surface what you've seen in the world. 
• When you're ready, click on "Submit a New Proposal" to start drafting your submission.
• To submit your proposal, you will need to complete the questions in the form and click “Submit Idea.”

By creating an account, adding Inspiration and submitting a proposal, you’ll meet people who are passionate about digital design, and you’ll engage with a community of experts and innovators throughout this 4-week phase (October 5-November 1). You’ll also learn about what's happening all around the world and find inspiration in what others are doing. Your submission will be seen by thousands of people and you’ll be able to comment, post, and “like” the proposals of others.  Deadline for submissions is 5:00PM Eastern Time on November 1, 2022. 

Evaluation Phase

A panel of experts and peers will review all submissions over 2 weeks and select finalists based on selection criteria. Winners will be announced on or around November 17, 2022.