Tag: Voluntary Sector

$5 Million Community News Competition: "who will build community through new media?"

The Knight Foundation is inviting entries to a $5 million competition to find innovative new ways to use online journalism to strengthen community life.
The 21st Century News Challenge is subtitled “who will build community through new media?”.
That’s exactly what we aim to do here, with the Grassroots Channel connecting active citizens, and Podminions providing a platform to help school pupils find their voice.
The challenge is open to everyone: individuals, companies and organisations from any country.

They don’t want the obvious:

We love citizen bloggers, but to qualify for one of these awards, you’ll have to show how what you’re doing will transform the field. Blogging about a school board meeting is valuable, but not unique.

and go on to explain why they hope to spend $5 million a year for 5 years on the intitiative:

The future of our communities, towns, suburbs, cities and states depends on the future of citizens’ ability to get the news they need to run their governments and their lives.

The goal here is to keep the values of good journalism — the fair, accurate, contextual search for the truth — as we construct the information vehicles of the future. It is news in the public interest that really makes our social worlds go round.

But when readers move from the printed newspaper to seek information online, who in cyberspace performs this function? Who is going to do in new media what Jack Knight and Jim Knight did with ink on paper in the 20th century?

We want to explore whether and how the digital world can be used to connect people in the real world. When we say community, we mean the real-life places where people live and work.  Truth is, online communities don’t need us.  Virtual communities spring up every day. But the idea of turning the web on its head to help people connect in real life does need our help.

We seek to bring technology to the arena of journalism values, just as we will also seek to bring journalism values into the arena of technology.

All I know about the Knight Foundation is what I’ve read on their website – a huge endowment left by the founders of what was once America’s largest local newspaper group. So if you can tell me more please do so.

In the meantime I’ve got my thinking cap on. If any one – especially in my own community in Birmingham – would like to collaborate then please get in touch.

Just add warts for a good story.

I just want to make reference to a couple of other bloggers.
Steve Bridger has recently posted about the value of story telling for the voluntary sector and Ingrid Koehler responded on the IDeA blog. Their worlds overlap with mine through a shared interest in the NCVO ICT Foresight programme.
I wont quote what they are saying in any great depth, but encourage you to click through and read. One point Ingrid made about the value of stories grabbed my attention.

In my work, I’d love to have more of these stories, but they are notoriously difficult to gather and sometimes to articulate.

The Grassroots Channel podcast is entirely based on gathering stories of active citizens. I won’t pretend it is a doddle, and encouraging others to gather stories and share them with the channel has been difficult. However I would say that Ingrid overstates the problem. Read more

"Sorry, I'm busy" or conversation in Social Networking

I had a friend at University who moved back home to America once we had all graduated. She was a good friend, and regularly wrote to me. They were good letters, full of news and interesting ideas, thoughtfully composed. I loved receiving them and from time to time would pen a few short sentences and post them. More often than not though I set the letter aside – promising to reply tomorrow.

Finally a letter popped through my door. In essence it said: “I’ve been reviewing some of the things in my life and I’ve decided to edit you out.” Once I was over the shock I realised I wasn’t surprised – why keep talking to someone who’s “too busy” to reply?What was remarkable was that she had the courtesy to tell me, after all most us just let relationships wither and go looking for more rewarding conversation.

So why am I telling you this? Yesterday I spent a stimulating few hours with a group of people exploring web 2.0 technologies and their value to the voluntary sector. We had been brought together by Megan Griffith at the ICT hub of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. Our aim is to help the NCVO set out some key strategic thoughts for voluntary organisations on the risk and opportuntities that come from IT and social networking.

As I digest what I’m learning it I’ll share more thoughts.

But my first is about vol orgs, the capacity to communicate and the willingness to share. If people are telling you they want to be in your club, but you lack the will, resources, culture or even manners to maintain a conversation , then the relationship will wither. That is true whether you communicate by phone, online or letter.
If you don’t intend to attend to the relationship why start in the first place? The other side will eventually turn away and find someone who will talk.

And you’ll be very lucky if they write to you tell you why.

Read more

It Shouldn’t Be So Common

Programme 16 of the Grassroots Channel hears about the link between gun crime in Birmingham UK and gun crime in Boston, Mass. Simon Walker, of the community arts project Curio City, tells us about Alex and Isaura Mendez, two visitors to Birmingham who have left a lasting impression on the city.

Links:
The Dorchester Reporter in Boston (dead link)
A map of gun crime in Alex’s Neighbourhood
Isaura Mendez and her work in her community (dead link)
Simon’s work on the Urban Fusion Website (dead link)
Friction Arts (dead link)