NetSquared teaming up with Sun Microsystems to produce global Hack Days. Sao Paolo, Brazil was a success on October 1, stay tuned for an update. Next up, China!
NetSquared is an initiative ofTechSoup
NetSquared enables social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web.
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rabble local
Voting Summary (Elevator Pitch):
rabble local will:
* Further democratize media access and activity in Canada (and beyond)
* Build the capacity of local communities to share information and their
perspectives on issues within and affecting their communities
Supporting organization:
rabble.ca
URL:
www.rabble.ca
City:
Toronto (incorporated but workers across Canada)
State/Region:
Ontario
Country:
Canada
Project Vision Statement & Potential Social Impact:
www.rabble.ca - Canada’s leading independent site for news and views.
rabble local will:
- Further democratize media access and activity in Canada (and beyond)
- Build the capacity of local communities to share information and their perspectives on issues within and affecting their communities
- Strengthen the connection between providing information and catalyzing positive social change.
Through partnerships with non-profits and community media outlets as well as our own networks of readers and listeners rabble local will develop and support a “peoples’ news bureau” of local, regional and even national news and views on our successful website. Following a set of criteria groups in local communities can apply for a rabble space and be provided with training and a platform that permits them to have podcasts, blogs, articles and other services on our successful news site.
While some participants may be journalists (or aspiring journalists) this project will also actively seek out community members and institutions that have deep connections and active participation in local community development to share the stories they see that need to be told to a wider audience. No national news site to our knowledge has asked community members to cover their local issues themselves and provided the training and platform to do it. Furthermore, few, if any media, go beyond the facilitation of reporting news and views to connecting the communities affected by the news.
All rabble local participants will be connected not just through the media they share on rabble.ca but through listservs and a project wiki. The intent is to foster sharing that goes beyond public media presentations and connects members to each other to whose communities may share similar challenges and opportunities- such as with housing or poverty.
Sustainability (financial) model:
rabble local will be an important addition to our site and will bring in its own revenue and increase traffic to the site, making it an affordable addition to our work. rabble.ca is supported primarily through membership drives (though all of our content is free) and through “sustaining partners” who support our work and our goals of democratizing media. We currently have a dozen sustaining partner organizations who provide significant financial resources to rabble (see the list at http://www.rabble.ca/about_us/sustaining_partners.shtml).
rabble.ca also has a growing advertising base. We are undergoing a redesign that will not only allow us to incorporate web 2.0 tools but will also allow us to better customize advertising. For example our new design (and software) will allow us to run local ads for visitors. Given the potential for increased targeted local advertising rabble local has a strong potential to be self-sustaining in three years. We will also be seeking sponsorships for podcasts.
Finally we have been seeking grant support to allow us to build rabble local more broadly than our resources will allow.
Potential obstacles:
Potential obstacles include:
- Raising up-front money to launch project at level desired
- Lack of resources by potential rabble local partners
- Perceived competition by other news sites, blogs, etc
- Resistance by some advertisers to concept
Resource Needs:
rabble local requires news software but rabble is currently making the shift to Drupal and undergoing a redesign. We have budgeted for this and are raising money as we make the switch. The primary resource we need is simply funding. We have the staff and consultants to do the project as well as diverse contacts across Canada to develop rabble local. Due to funding the project will likely need to be done in stages.
Key Milestones:
- To evaluate and select web tool to host rabble local (for example to use our own site or to develop and link to pages such as VOX)
- To identify and contact diverse potential partners for rabble local. This process has begun. In year one we will aim to begin with five localities with a vision toward having up to twenty-five.
- To conduct a needs-assessment of partners’ training needs
- To develop training largely using on-line tools. Create evaluation for training redesign
- To continue to raise money for the project
- To develop ad package for potential buyers
- To develop marketing and promotion campaign for rabble local
Project Summary:
rabble local will promote media access, media democracy and cooperation between community organizations as well as create a replicable model of democratic new media.
