Our project is specific to empowering U.S. Latinos with relevant bi-lingual news, updates and information focused on increasing voter turn out at the election polls. Our hope is that the greater community is equipped with the insight of “Project Based Living” our notion of gaining the awareness to impact issues that affect them. Understanding the digital divide in terms of ethnic communities, our strategy will be to integrate both traditional media with web 2.0 technologies to deliver real-time news from a holistic approach that will include everyday people’s perspectives along with quality reliable sources. People will go to where they are comfortable and feel secure with information, we will provide this outlet. ONLINE, we will use www.explotaelvoto.org a mixed use web 2.0 site that will integrate a social network, and video content platform to include news, blogging, debates and forums for US Latinos to express themselves, share and communicate news and ideas along with our army of community reporters. OFFLINE, we will utilize traditional TV, we have secured a relationship with LATV television the fastest growing bi-lingual network that reaches Latinos in the US contingent on funding to promote our grassroots and voter awareness efforts built around up to date information that addresses issues that affect US Latinos. Under the leadership of Fred Sotelo and direction of Rick Najera VP of programming-LATV, Explota El Voto will be producing and launching a special election segment with LATV, along with a 12 episode “Explota El Voto” reality show that will allow our correspondents to interview civic, community, business leaders and youth in reference to real issues that affect Latinos in the US from immigration, health to education across both LATV’s TV network and EXPLOTOELVOTO.org in Key Latino Markets off line that include Los Angeles, Houston, New York, Chicago, Miami, Orlando, San Antonio, Albuquerque-Santa Fe, Boston, Corpus Christi, Denver-Boulder, Hartford-New Haven, Laredo, Monterey-Salinas-Santa Cruz, plus new

The Continuum Project (CP) will use Mo'Blast technologies to help local communities establish an online presence. Mo'Blast Inc., an innovator in location-based technologies, has developed a scalable solution for the geotagging, aggregating, and distribution of multimedia content on the Web and mobile phones. The system (Mo'Blast), currently in alpha stage development, includes the following: a global landmark database; support for geotagging (latitude, longitude, altitude) of content in text, photos, audio, and video formats; a local search engine; distributed systems and distributed caching facilities for speed and performance; open APIs for third-party developers; and a low cost structure. Furthermore, Mo'Blast provides end-to-end transcoding and image processing services so that videos and images from different sources (Web cam, mobile phone, and video cameras) can be uploaded, processed, and streamed efficiently in real-time, on the Internet. The proposed Continuum Project will be a toolkit built on top of Mo'Blast. It will be free for non-commercial use. CP will provide a set of tools for a content moderator to create a channel (online community), assign it a location, define a locale (language and timezone), invite members, and assign write permissions. CP will also allow skinning of Web sites and adding/removing of tools and third-party widgets. Content creators will be able to submit content via smart phones and computers. Once published, channel content is accessible to members on Internet enabled devices. Community members can discover content by proximity (where I am), by channel, by tags, and by time. Alternatively, members can define a radar (area of interest) to see an aggregate view of all channel postings inside that radar.

Once there were guidebooks; then there were audio-guides; now, we have the means within our grasp to create a revolutionary 21st century navigation, guidance and information system that will simultaneously serve and strengthen the wider community that shares a presence on the MIT campus. We propose to combine locative and WiFi technologies with a multi-media content aggregation system to create an electronic resource that will deliver location-specific, continuously updated stories to users’ hand-held devices. The near-term goal is to enrich the life of the extended MIT community by transforming the MIT campus itself into something approaching a locative wiki, to which all can contribute and from which all will benefit. The long-term goal is to create an open software system and content aggregation resource that other campuses and communities can use to create their own location aware guidance systems – a gift, if you will, from MIT to the wider world. The MIT Museum Without Walls will enable entirely new kinds of community life to blossom on the MIT campus. An individual walking through the campus will be able to explore MIT’s achievements, traditions and values; to contribute his or her own experiences for others to enjoy; and even to locate other individuals nearby who are willing to meet over coffee to discuss issues of common interest. In these and similar ways, the project will combine mobile technology with community building. The project will break new ground technically, by combining location-awareness, wireless hand held devices and the Web to enable users to contribute and access information flexibly as they move through complex indoor and outdoor environments; and it will break new ground interpretively, by creating a continuously evolving body of location-specific stories about everything from history to breaking news, collecting and making available the accumulating memories and experiences of an entire community.

I launched Interactive Narratives back in July 2003. It began as personal bookmarking system where I can keep track of multimedia packages as I lectured and conducted workshops at The Poynter Institute and around the country. I quickly discovered that such a database had widespread usefulness and appeal. Common feedback from folks throughout the industry was that they felt isolated during their multimedia reporting and editing process. Times have changed. A bit. There are certainly more journalists and other storytellers out there with the passion to tell their narratives in multimedia. But there's also a lot of data smog that clog up the ability to see what's great and how we can learn from each other. Today's web 2.0 universe empowers the users to help create social networks and connect with each other. But there's still the need to distinguish the powerful and insightful stories. Time is too short to sift through the YouTubes of the world. In comes Interactive Narratives 2.0. (IN2.0) My goal is to turn Interactive Narratives into a truly community-based site through direct user engagement, user entries into the database, ratings systems and comments. In addition, new features will allow multimedia storytellers to connect directly with each other to share, explore, inspire and, potentially, collaborate. And back-end goal is not to re-invent the web 2.0 wheel but to develop a steering wheel so the community can help guide and lead the way to effective storytelling and narratives. I'd like to take the current website of Interactive Narratives and make it into a truly social network website for telling interactive stories on the web from both professional and citizen journalists alike. The documents attached are the project plans, wireframes and visual mockups we have already started to make this update to the site. I should also note that the Online News Association has agreed to pay $10,000 to help fund a portion of this plan.

This project seeks to explore the use of Microsoft's accessible XNA framework to develop serious immersive experiences for PCs and the XBox360 that are factual, accurate and timely. The project will model the federal buildings of Washington D.C. and place in them avatars of elected and appointed officials. While a 'Second Life' potential for interactive community could exist within the model, rather than focus on the novelty of the interface, the goal will be to attach vast databases of public information to the virtual space allowing users to visualize complicated issues that generally obfuscate the workings of federal government for citizens in local districts nationwide. Interpersonal and financial relationships that underpin politics will be revealed in heretofore unseen ways. Avatars will be connected to the congressional record, speeches, public statements and news searches. Overlay maps will show current and pending budget allocations by buildings and departments. Daybooks will give users across the nation more access to the workings of the their government. While certain experiences will be built modeling point-of-view gaming experiences, others will incorporate feature-rich real-time-strategy elements. Real data will stream into the experience live over the Internet, creating links to current news sources and archives of information. All working press organizations will be invited to take part.

We believe the future of local news will blend mobile communications with virtual worlds online: the simplest way to find out what is going on around you is to go to a community 4D virtual model, ‘drill-down’ to the micro level, the time span and the category of news (e.g. crime watch, local sales, calendar of events), and then expand headlines pinpointed across the 4D community map. We will create a platform capable of building such a 4D model as a joint effort by local community members. The 'Official' version of the model & news will be edited and 'owned' by local community editorial boards, elected through members' votes among the most prominent contributors. The latest, not-yet-approved 'Live version', as well as 'Un-official' versions will allow for alternative ideas and fun, designed by 'unofficial' groups or individuals. The 4D map itself will be fully updateable, restricted only by GPS coordinates and anchored prominent blocks/buildings. Members can use a simple set of tools to add/upgrade blocks, even individual buildings, as well as any content related to them. It will span across time, preserving past records and displaying plans for the future. News items are collected from multiple sources: incl. sms, mms, e-mail, blogs, etc.; classified in several dimensions by search-and-sort tools; and then assembled in the 'Live room' where they are commented and rated. They get a 'reliability tag' generated by a combination of factors, including the previous history of the source and consistency with other trusted sources. Those who 'pass' are directed to their location on the 'official' map. The system integrates professional journalism, focusing on precision, with citizen journalism, focusing on speed. Companies can purchase an official presence on the map (still allowing comments on their services), thus making the project sustainable. The platform will combine Drupal open source CMS with additional original open source modules: java 3D rendering, full mobile functionality, GPS, search-and-sort tools, voting.

Readable Laws translates Congressional legislation into plain English so that everyday citizens can read it, understand it, and know how it affects them. Thousands of densely written bills are proposed every year. Few are ever fully read, even by the senators and representatives who pass them. Consequently, bills are often filled with dubious clauses that go unnoticed until they cause a scandal, much like the recent interim appointment of US attorneys authorized by the Patriot Act. By then, the bill is a law, and it is too late to change it. Countless loopholes and pork spending projects are passed because bills are incomprehensible. This inaccessibility discourages the public from participating in politics and weakens our democracy. Using the same concept as Wikipedia, Readable Laws invites the public to: -convert federal legislation into plain English, line-by-line. -analyze these bills and explain how they will impact the citizenry if passed. For example, a Readable Laws analysis of the agriculture budget bill will explain its impact on farmers, grocers and consumers, and spell out what each part of the bill means. But instead of relying on lobbies or the press, the Readable Laws analysis is written by the public--including those very farmers and grocers who have first-hand knowledge to contribute. A few other sites have similar goals. Readable Laws is different because it attacks the raw text, providing line-by-line interpretation and analysis. No citizen should need a law degree to read a bill from start to finish. Aside from enabling this fundamental right, this approach ensures that no stone goes unturned when analyzing bills: often, only bills that are controversial on the surface or applicable to the greater population get ample news coverage. The aforementioned agriculture bill would likely go unscrutinized, making it a good target for hidden legislation. Readable Laws prevents this. Because people naturally care more about laws that affect them directly, users will also be able to find legislation by ZIP code, issue, etc.

The Opinion Pool is a project that seeks to build and quickly bring to market model online templates and tools that deliver high quality, interactive opinion journalism — much of it local — and that move beyond traditional opinion-page content to cultivate a new generation of citizen contributors trained in the values of professional journalism and empowered to use new media to promote civic dialogue and community problem solving. The Opinion Pool is an unprecedented collaboration of more than 500 opinion journalists at large and middle-sized metropolitan newspapers, along with dozens of community and college newspapers, all associated with the National Conference of Editorial Writers. Project funds would be used to advance two goals:

* Develop model opinion Web sites that expand the reach of local editorial pages to diverse new media platforms, invite community collaboration and raise the level of local civic involvement. New media features and tools would seek to balance impact and sophistication with practicality, sustainability, and ease of use.
* Develop a national Web site hosted by NCEW that
o (a) showcases best practices in opinion journalism and civic involvement strategies in new media and
o (b) offers training and other how-to advice to citizen and professional journalists.

Up to 10 newspapers would serve as pilot sites, committed to working together and sharing information as each builds and tests its own tools and template. Each would share content and create practical journalistic and financial strategies for sustaining a dynamic online forum. The pilots also would involve the larger community in designing and managing their model sites, and would develop systems to help ensure that community participants adhere to standards of fairness and accuracy. Other NCEW members and interested community members, meanwhile, may join The Opinion Pool and contribute to its progress by following the pilot sites’ work, experimenting with elements of the model templates, and widely sharing their results.

We will extend the context and power of public library collections by hyperlinking the materials within libraries with an open global digital knowledge network for youth using semacode. Our ultimate aim is to connect all Physical library collections, Informative materials, media, and books, Cultural objects, and Specific physical locations and objects with a global digital community and open knowledge network which is mobile as well as virtual using common language, semacode, and free creative applications. About B3OK: http://www.b3ok.pbwiki.com It offers: * open customization and tailoring according to the demands of individual library collections * growth and expansion of knowledge areas dynamically across physical and digital realms * A more intuitive browsing and exploration of subject areas than other organizational systems, such as dewey * A greater ease of collection development, management, and maintenance * A broader spectrum of delivery possibilities and extension possibilities for knowledge, information, and culture across all media formats * Greater access to knowledge (both existing and dynamically being created) and creative contributions of people participating on the global digital knowledge network. How it works: Phase One: Replace existing organization (Dewey, LOC...) with B3OK tags, (browse subject tagging examples and guidelines on the wiki ~ http://www.b3ok.pbwiki.com~ add your notes and additional tags to the open system) Phase Two: Print and attach semacode labels to collections ~ books, media, and materials, using b3ok semacode generator to connect it with the open b3ok wiki platform (seeking these funds to develop further and get the word out to public libraries) Phase Three: Create, Contribute, and Share knowledge on the b3ok platform and continue to expand the open knowledge system into the physical and digital worlds through publicity and partnerships.

Big media is only now waking up to the power of the Web, databases and social media. A few media companies are beginning to hire developers and are trying to innovate online. They're building up expensive server hardware and programming new features, tapping into new technologies to reach readers anywhere they are. Newspapers with hundreds of thousands of readers and millions in ad revenues can do this. Thousands of small town weeklies, vital to the very survival of their towns, cannot. Many small town newspapers don't even have Web sites. With the Knight Foundation's help, I would like to build a world-class online content management system for small town papers - the weeklies and twice-weeklies for whom a high-quality CMS is unaffordable. The system would be built in Django, an open-source Web framework, and the code creating the site would be freely available. In addition to making the code free, this project would host sites for small town papers without cost for five years. I call the project a CMS for lack anything better to call it. It's much more than a CMS. I want to build a site that creates online social networks around the very real social networks that exist in small towns. The site will allow people to participate in and contribute to those social networks, helping breathe life into the site. The social networks will then drive a customized, personalized experience for users of the site. Beyond the social networks, I want to build the mechanisms for people in small towns to follow their institutions of government, schools and local sports through databases of public records, newspaper-created information or data entered by the users themselves. In short, I want to put the tools that big papers are just starting to use into the hands of small-town newspaper publishers who are far closer to readers than big media will ever be.

A series of plugins or bolt-ons that enable publishers to facilitate more productive conversation around a news issue, and local populations to engage more directly with the issues affecting them. Based on 'Five W's and a H', this allows users and journalists to address the following questions with a simple user interface: Who can I connect with? (e.g. social networking, etc.) Where did this happen? (e.g. mapping) Why should I care? (e.g. personalisation, databases, how international events affect us) When are events coming up that I need to be aware of (e.g. Calendar, Facebook Events) What did the journalist read to write this?/What have people said about this article? (e.g. social bookmarking, links, documents, Trackback) How can I make a difference? (e.g. petitions, changes in personal behaviour or consumption, automation) The technology will act as an 'aggregator-stimulator', or 'pull-push' model, pulling together relevant content and using editorial questions and ideas of 'incompleteness' to motivate contributors (see mockup) The project builds on ideas outlined in the 'Model for a 21st century newsroom' published on the Online Journalism Blog (see documents attached), specifically part 3 - 'Five Ws and a H that should come after every story', but also the 'News Diamond' (particularly the alert and context stages) and Distributed Journalism.

In Paraguay, there are only three major national newspapers and all focused on events happening in Asuncion and involving political and economic elites. In the rest of the country practically no local news sources are to be found, with the exception of 2 cities that have local newspapers and community radios. News sources focused on civil society events are even more rare, almost non existent. NICT has only recently begun to reach rural areas, and only 3,2% of the total population has access to the internet. A recent initiative, OPORTUNET, has established 100 internet connections in poor and isolated communities for public use. There is an urgent need to provide timely and relevant local news, in formats that would empower citizens with information to participate in the decision making process, promoting good governance, and community-building. The main goal is to generate local news from a citizens perspective with the use of new technology. CIRD, in alliance with OPORTUNET, 75 civil society organizations, the Paraguayan Journalist Forum, and community radios, for the first time will promote the creation of 17 local news centers (1 coordinator/editor and 2 correspondents) with their own website for the provision of information from the citizens point of view and a civic journalism on-line training course in Spanish and Guarani; (user friendly for persons with disabilities) reaching 1000 low income beneficiaries, mainly youth, in 17 departments of Paraguay. Beneficiaries will use new technology (web-site and cellular phones) to disseminate their news; acquire techniques for conducting surveys from a citizens point of view; and manage local on-line databases in each of the 17 news centers. During the 2nd and 3rd year, the trained correspondents will broadcast their news on a weekly basis to national news sources (TV, Radio, and Newspapers) and conduct 2 yearly cellular-phone surveys in 17 cities of the country focused on civil society concerns. There will be a final evaluation of the initiative.

FollowTheMoney.org will create a 50-state database of all lobbyists and clients and mash it with political donor data to reveal power players in each state and let citizens and journalist see how campaign cash affects public policy.
The National Institute on Money in State Politics (FollowTheMoney.org) requests $125,000 to create the nation's first 50-state online database that identifies all state-registered lobbyists and their clients and is coded to business category to empower independent investigation. Other foundation grants will contribute $1 million to build and code the 50-state political contributions database the Institute builds each election. We will do a mash-up of the two resources for public access and let citizens and journalists and other researchers investigate the political funds elected officials accept from lobbyists and their clients.