Introducing our first judging cohort

Now that our first cohort of open call for proposals grantees have been announced, we are thrilled to share more about the incredible panel of judges who helped us select these outstanding projects for funding. Chosen from the technology, open standards, philanthropy, and arts and culture sectors, they brought diverse perspectives drawn from both personal and professional experience. We are immensely grateful for their time and expertise.

The Grant for the Web Program Team was augmented by working with the amazing and talented Leah Taylor. She helped us to design and manage our judging process and was key in recruiting this excellent panel.

Introducing Grant for the Web's first judging cohort

Isabela Bagueros, Executive Director of the Tor Project. LinkedIn‍

Cris Beasley, the artist behind the Becoming Dragon emotional intelligence card deck and a Grant for the Web Ambassador.

I know everyone reading this realizes how broken our systems of power are. I also know how hard it is to believe anything can be done about it. Grant for the Web is one big, audacious go at it... By now it’s clear that without changing the money, we won’t change the web. Let’s keep pushing it forward, and little by little we will find ourselves in the technology landscape that we’re proud to pass down to our kids and our kid’s kids.

Tyler Bell, Consultant at EleventoOne & co-founder of Movement.fm. LinkedIn – Twitter

Judging the competition got me thinking about the incredible potential of web monetization across all verticals and the amazing individuals and groups who are harnessing the technology to create equitable systems of distribution at scale. Also, judging the competition reminded me of how much more work we can do to invite ideas from underrepresented groups and communities to leverage this technology to make significant contributions to our society using the web monetization resources. Even more, judging the competition reinforced my belief that our collective actions as humans can have tremendous impact in our shared society to make this world a better place for us all. - Tyler Bell

Jory Burson, an open source and open standards consultant and educator, and the founder of Working Directory. LinkedIn

Judging the competition got me thinking about how technology like Web Monetization, properly developed and cultivated, creates markets and opportunities that are long lasting and accessible to everyone. The GftW process has been purposeful and methodical - I believe it will be a strong case study for how new technologies become foundational digital infrastructure in an inclusive and open way. - Jory Burson

HJ Chen, a Grant for the Web Ambassador, a UX Developer at Shopify, and the founder of Talk.CSS. LinkedIn – GitHub

Judging the competition got me thinking about how important it is to have diverse perspectives at the start of any new endeavour, especially in technology that has the potential to impact society as a whole. Input from folks across a spectrum of backgrounds, cultures and experiences early can highlight key issues that could be resolved with lower effort as opposed to after the product has grown larger. - HJ Chen

Anastassia Davis, an automated test engineer and chef. LinkedIn

Judging the competition got me thinking about the true nature of inclusivity: that it is not enough to simply offer disadvantaged and underrepresented groups a seat at the table. They must be invited to participate, and made to feel that their perspectives are welcome and will be taken into account. This project was a big step in the right direction and I’m glad to have been part of it. - Anastassia Davis

Shameeka Emanuel, Diversity STEM Strategist, Google. Professional Bio – LinkedIn

Judging the competition got me thinking about what inclusion is really about.  We need to ensure that everyone has a seat at the table as we find, fund and design the future.  I am so happy to be a part of this effort to make web monetization more accessible and inclusive. - Shameeka Emanuel

‍Beth Goldstein, Senior Program Associate at the Annenberg Foundation. LinkedIn

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Tomomi Imura, an open web engineer / cloud developer advocate at Microsoft. LinkedIn – Twitter – GitHub

Judging the competition got me thinking about the huge potential and opportunities with web monetization and open web technology in general. There are so many culturally rich use-cases, diverse ideas… reading everybody’s proposals was very inspiring. - Tomomi Imura

Kristina McGee, a program officer from the Annenberg Foundation. LinkedIn

Ali Spivak, Senior Director of Developer Relations at Coil. LinkedIn

Judging the competition got me thinking about the types of challenges people are facing globally & the ways they are looking at using web monetization in the real world. - Ali Spivak

Terrance Taylor, CEO of Taylor Glenn ConsultingLinkedIn

Judging the competition got me thinking about how the content creators have the power to control their destiny! This is an opportunity for tech to empower the individual users to have control over their data. - Terrance Taylor

‍Janice Wait, a program officer from the Mozilla Foundation and member of Grant for the Web's Executive Council. LinkedIn

Judging the competition got me thinking about the creativity and innovation that can be inspired when space is created to reimagine what's possible. Grant for the Web is creating that space around Web Monetization and the projects proposed gave me hope for a future of the web that puts people - not their data - first. - Janice Wait

Saron Yitbarek, an entrepreneur, developer, speaker, podcaster and the founder of Disco. LinkedIn

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If you are interested in becoming a future Grant for the Web judge, please drop us a line outlining your professional experience and interest/experience with Web Monetization.