Fundraising

In order to catalyze the First Phase of Development in the Echo Chamber Project Roadmap, I need to align myself with other grassroots media activists using Drupal as well as interested Drupal developers.

Based on the conversations I've had at recent conferences, I think that there is enough overlap between a lot of various citizen journalist and collaborative media efforts that a "Drupal Media Coalition" could help advance the interests of a broad range of projects and the larger Drupal community as a whole.

I initiated a working group at the CivicSpace user's summit in NYC for Drupal developers and site maintainers who were interested in forming some sort of coalition. I actually didn't have a chance to formally introduce this idea to everyone during the working lunch as I had intended because a number of interesting side conversations had evolved -- including one I was having with Brady Jarvis of code0range.net and Aaron Pava of CivicActions.

Another reason why I'm cutting together a short video featuring many leaders of the new media movement is because my film advisor Brian Newman suggested that I reach out to the film world with what I'm doing.

I don't think the film industry understands folksonomy, Drupal, wikis, open source & non-hierarchical grassroots collaboration. Brian informs me that they understand short videos or audio pieces that are incorporated into the site. It's hard for film folks to digest a lot of the other stuff that I've been writing about.

So I'm working on a short film that can provide some metaphors for what I'm trying to accomplish with this site that can appeal to a broader audience. I've had a number of people tell me, "I read your blog, but I can't understand what you're talking about." Having other people say what I've been writing about should provide some useful metaphors.

I've written enough theory and have enough of a proof of concept for how I intend to collaboratively produce The Echo Chamber documentary -- I think that it's time to go after some new media grants.

The problem is that I haven't had a lot of time to search for these types of grants.

So here's my first assignment for you -- my dear reader -- poke around online and find of these new media grants. Post some links in the comment section. Wouldn't it be great to submit some grants that were collaboratively produced? Thanks in advance.

I attended a CivicSpace User Summit in NYC after the Personal Democracy Forum, and there were a couple of really exciting expansions to the Drupal/CivicSpace platform coming down the pipe.

The first was OpenNetwork.TV that CivicActions was contracted to do. OpenNetwork.TV is still password protected, but we got a sneak peak at the user summit. WOW! It's going to take what's possible with Drupal/CivicSpace to the next level.

UPDATE: CivicSpace Labs is not responsible for the development of the Drupal modules for OpenNetwork.tv. CivicActions' Aaron Pava merely gave us a demo of OpenNetwork.tv at the CivicSpace User Summit.

I have been contacting potential advisors and producers over the last couple of days in order to get a strong foundation for the post-production and distribution phases. Having a strong and experienced team around the project makes a huge difference in the final product. It will also open a lot of doors down the road.

I have been talking to professors in the sociological academic community who are interested in the project as well as some independent film producers that I’ve met in my film festival travels.

The producers want to see a trailer (anywhere from 4 to 10 minutes) -- I have been receiving more and more interview transcripts back from my volunteers which will help me parse down the 38+hours of material into a coherent summary of what the project will entail.