Diversity

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May 16th, 2005

The Institute for Public Accuracy just put out a press release about the Media Reform Conference taking place in St. Louis this weekend. I'm unfortunately not going to be able to make it, but it would've been a good event to meet up with the progressive media activists.

I'm forgoing the progressive wing at the moment to focus on the more Democratic & Republican technologists who are going to be at the Personal Democracy Forum this coming Monday.

Keywords:

* Citizen Journalism Toolkit
* Media Reform
* Community of Practice
* Open Source Business Plan
* Symbiotic Relationships
* Ideological, Racial and Gender Diversity

Intention:

* Provide preliminary proof-of-concept by manifesting an infrastructure in Phase 01.
* Build a coalition of partners interested in reforming the mainstream media and developing a Citizen Journalist toolkit for collaborative content development.
* Open Source the Business Plan to make the strategic intentions for The Echo Chamber documentary more transparent.
* Connect this project with larger institutional agenda setters who are monitoring the progress and willing to adopt the best practices developed through the production of this film.
* Create a Community of Practice where there is enough logistical support to manifest the remaining phases of post-production and distribution.
* Create a diverse network of volunteers who are mutually interested in creating a technological infrastructure and citizen journalism methodologies that make the press more democratic.

What I have:

* I have four advisors: 1 Journalism Professor, 1 Film Advisor, 1 Communications
* Practitioner, and 1 Drupal Developer.
* A brainstormed list of groups potentially interested in collaborating.
* Contacts with some New Media leaders, Activist Technologists, and other SXSW panel participants.
* An e-mail list of contacts

What I need:

* Recruit an outreach director to help with building a broad and diverse coalition.
* Recruit producers to budget and help raise required funds for the remaining phases.
* Recruit more academic advisors from a variety of different disciplines who would be interested in the project.
* Recruit additional logistical support -- legal, technology, etc.
* Collaborate with activists and organizations who are interested in helping develop tools for the remaining phases of this roadmap.
* Help with spreading these intentions and desires to your respective social networks.
* Receive vouchers of credibility from trusted sources within the journalistic and blogging communities
* Marketing support from the center and edges of the blogosphere
* To get this project on the radar screen of small, mid-level or mainstream news organizations
* To create opportunities to speak with strategic decision-makers employed by the press as the project progresses.

On to Phase 03 Recruit Volunteers to Contribute Metadata on Interview Transcripts
Back to Roadmap

Keywords

* Beta Testing
* Volunteer Education
* Recruiting Distributive Labor
* Marketing Strategy & Tactics
* Community of Practice
* Diversity

Intention

* Recruit 20 beta testers to test out the user interface and design architecture
* Recruit help in creating podcasts, screencasts and videos to help educate volunteers on the user interface
* Market site to a broad range of audiences (Be transparent with intentions)
* Recruit at least 200 active volunteers to blog and adding tags about the soundbites
* Define user roles to create a vital community
* Analyze scaling issues and requirements for further growth
* Address diversity issues after identity data has been collected in Phase 04

What I have

* Connection to a number of interviewees with influence in the field of journalism and politics.
* Awareness of the project within some of the leaders of the New Media movement who have social capital.
* An opportunity to provide people with the choice for participating in media production.
* A list of groups and organizations interested in media activism and democratic reform

What I need

* Assistance with marketing strategy and tactics
* Best practices for Communities of Practice
* Help with getting the word out to potential volunteers
* To get the project on the radar screen of more journalistic institutions
* Find Node Connectors and Bridge Bloggers
* Tips for community development
* Tips for maximizing diversity

On to Phase 04 Collect Identity Information on Volunteers
Back to Roadmap

Keywords

* Digital Divide
* Multimedia Bridging Solutions
* Public Insight Journalism

Intention

* Find innovative ways for using existing technology solutions for gathering and including a broader range of perspectives into The Echo Chamber documentary and online discussions.
* Use volunteer filmmakers to establish Peer-to-Peer connections with "disenfranchised citizens," and have them ask a series of short questions relevant to the developed themes of this documentary.
* Use Man-on-the-street interviewing techniques for more random connections.

The film will be structured into four major sections: "Countdown to War," "The Editorial Process," "Echoing White House Claims," and finally "The Pitfalls of Television Journalism."

COUNTDOWN TO WAR
The first section will vividly show how the television news media treated war as inevitable event by early November. CBS had already labeled their Iraq segments "Showdown with Saddam," NBC named them "Countdown: Iraq" and ABC chose the more cautionary ""Road to War?"
The UN weapons inspection process was only viewed as a potential tripwire for war, and reporters became impatient as to when the war was finally going to begin.