MIT is offering an award for $250,000 to someone that breaks the rules to "affect positive change for greater society."

MIT's Media Lab has announced that it will award $250,000 to a group or individual for an act of civil disobedience that stands out above the rest.

Sounds dangerous... but, then, it is the will to disobey that has made us great on so many occasions.

"You don't change the world by doing what you're told," says Joi Ito, the director of MIT's Media Lab.

According to the department's website, "this idea came after a realization that there's a widespread frustration from people trying to figure out how can we effectively harness responsible, ethical disobedience aimed at challenging our norms, rules or laws to benefit society."

"You don't get a Nobel Prize for doing what you're told, you get it for questioning authority," says Ito.  Truely, people like Martin Luther King, Jr., Galileo and even the American revolutionaries had to step outside of what was legal in order to affect the greater good.

All told, the award is going to be given based on one caveat: "The recipient must have taken a personal risk in order to affect positive change for greater society."