Thank you, Ricardo, for your wonderful input! AndriusKulikauskas November 1, 2007 8:24 CET

I turned in our full proposal and now I am waiting for their response. If they show further interest, then we will be asked to show our proposed budget. AndriusKulikauskas November 3, 2007 5:43 CET

KnightNewsChallenge

Knight News Challenge

News Challenge: What Knight Wants in Year Two, June 5, 2007. Amy Gahran interviews journalism program officer Gary Kebbel.

DavidSasaki: News Challenge Deadline Fast Approaching. I hope that you all are planning to submit your ideas to the Knight Foundation's News Challenge award. The News Challenge awards grants that are much larger than Rising Voices' microgrants. However, the October 15 deadline is fast approaching. I have been told that the streamlined application takes less than 20 minutes so please don't let this opportunity pass you by. Deadline: October 15, 2007

Questions

Local Assembly of USB Flash Drive Editor Includer for Linking Urban and Rural Kenya

Describe your project: (325 words)

The Minciu Sodas laboratory is organizing the design and assembly of an “Includer”, a device for reading and writing text files (such as emails) stored on any USB flash drive. It is optimized for people in Africa with marginal Internet access so that online community might help them reach out locally.

Imagine... Once a week, at an Internet cafe, Wendi downloads online community archives onto her USB flash drive. She walks home 3 miles. She turns on her Includer. It is powered by rechargeable D batteries. She plugs her flash drive into the Includer and reads her emails on its monochrome display. Her neighbor Helen can't read but wants to know if the nearby villages might want her bees wax candles. Wendi plugs in a standard computer keyboard to write some letters. Then she plugs in a local WiFi access point to send a letter to the next village. Someday they will link with the Internet itself. Next, she plugs in Helen's flash drive. They share files in an “offline file sharing network”. Helen will go to the women's ICT training center in Mbita Point. They will dispatch her letter to the Social Agriculture working group. Sasha, an organic beekeeper in Serbia, will likely reply.

Wendi's Includer was assembled by Ken Owino in Nairobi. He leads an office 1 km from the Kibera slums. Interns come from Kibera, from rural Kenya and visitors from everywhere. He trained with 4 others for 2 months in Italy with Binario Etico to assemble trashware. His team makes hand painted, hand crafted Includers from kit parts as well as cash register displays, game boys, scientific calculators. They have made 200 of them. They now use 3 watts instead of 4 watts, and cost $200 instead of $300. They are the jewel of a business that includes assembling, servicing used computers, selling flash drives with content, organizing knowledge work. This humble device performs like a 1980s computer that someday might be mass produced for $30. Today it is the symbol of the African renaissance, technological and cultural.

Who would want to use it, and why? (125 words)

Independent thinkers in Africa benefit from a responsive online community like Minciu Sodas. They get help writing proposals, making contacts, attending conferences, getting computers and part-time work. They grow as writers. Often they must pay the Internet cafe $1 per hour and so go online only once per week. A simple device would let them read and write the contents of their USB flash drives. They are then available for part-time knowledge work and projects on-the-ground. They get attention that helps them overcome dismissal and discouragement they may face locally. They become online representatives for their local activists.

Locally assembling, adapting, servicing, extending the Includers and training people to use, program, assemble them multiplies the value of local, regional and global networks.

Why are you the best person or organization to develop this project? (325 words)

Minciu Sodas is an open laboratory for serving and organizing independent thinkers around the world. We are passionately interested to reach out to include the widest variety of independent thinkers. We have 150 active participants, 1500 supportive participants, 20 working groups and paid workers in Lithuania, Serbia, Kenya, Palestine, USA, Latvia, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Cameroon, India. Since 1998, we have developed a vibrant culture of “caring about thinking” where we all “work for free” on our projects in the Public Domain and are then ready to work for pay for those who value self-directed workers. Recently, we organized 100 people for $24,000 to collect 2,000 stories for www.myfoodstory.com

Our values-based approach is successful in Africa. We have a strong network in Kenya and also Tanzania and Uganda. Samwel Kongere, once a fisherman, now leads a center with 15 computers at Mbita Point in rural Kenya. Ken Owino of Nafsi Afrika Acrobats has found an office in Nairobi that might serve our regional network. They are interested to link urban and rural Kenya with the Includer. Binario Etico, a leading trashware cooperative, will create a 2 month course in Rome to teach them computer assembly and electronics assembly. We have the funds to bring Samwel and Ken to Europe and provide for their stay. Since 2003, we have championed and developed social software optimized for marginal Internet access. Engineers from the UK, Brazil and Silicon Valley are helping us think through our hardware options.

We are pioneers in "working openly", authors of the award-winning "An Economy for Giving Everything Away" and founding members of the European Union thematic network COMMUNIA for the Public Domain. We have generated perhaps the world's largest collection of copyright-free letters (25,000), wiki pages (4,000) and online chat (200 lines per day). Our work on the Includer is available in the Public Domain without restriction, commercial or otherwise, at worknets.org

What potentially bigger thing might happen if everything went perfectly and the stars all aligned? (325 words) currently 231

We are jumpstarting an ecosystem for people with marginal Internet access that has already provided thousands of dollars of work. My aim is that we have a thriving and open economy that functions on many different scales. I have written my thoughts in our paper "An Economy for Giving Everything Away" for which I was awarded a travel grant to the 2002 Development by Design conference in Bangalore, India.

In a free society, a "sustainable" initiative needs to generate profits or at least serve or delight some benefactor. I hope that our African colleagues profit handsomely from our work together. My intention is that we bring money into Africa, but not take any out of it. Instead, we have started a "work shares" system where we can invest in our African participants (and provide financing for computers or Includers), and we recover our investment through their future work for us or through sales of the work shares.

My own concern is to have a stable income for the coming year and make some progress in repaying about $80,000 in loans which I have accumulated since 1998 in order to organize our Minciu Sodas laboratory. This project allows me to pursue our vision of an Includer and thus activate many ways of making a living in Africa, but also build further a profound human network which fosters the growth of independent thinkers.

We hope that our network might evolve into a culture of independent thinkers whose values are represented by the independent work that Includer makes possible. If we might double in size every year, then in 10 years we would have 100,000 active and 1,000,000 supportive participants. And in another ten years we might have an ethic of independent thinker, with 100,000,000 active and 1,000,000,000 supportive. Independent thinkers would then be available to all as examples and we would be ready to work together and respond to every value, every exploration, every endeavor.

How will you be able to measure whether or not your project has really made a difference? (325 words) currently 240

Our Includer, if successful, will show that there is a market for an Afrocentric alternative to a laptop or computer, new or used. Our African participants emphasize that 90% of Africans do not have electricity and therefore need a low power device that does not depend on the electric grid. The Includer uses standard parts (USB flash drives, computer keyboard, D batteries) which can be shared, replaced, upgraded and extended with additional modules such as for wireless Internet or for recording sound. A focus on the needs of "independent thinkers" and a commitment to local assembly of the Includer will foster a network of Includer champions that provides service, training and partnership. The Includer can claim success if it finds customers who value the human network that it opens up and at $400 would prefer it to a used laptop. Subsequently, success can be measured in growing sales (more than 100,000,000) and a drop in price (under $30).

Another criteria of success is the extent to which each Includer is used. How actively do the champions contribute to online communities? How many work openly on individual projects? How much educational material do they contribute to public collections? How much and what kind of paid work are they able to find? Do they circulate content across different venues and connect different communities? If the champions are active at Minciu Sodas and other online networks, then these questions are easy to quantify.

What unmet need does your proposal answer? (325 words) Currently 287

One billion people will soon have marginal Internet access, perhaps walking three miles and paying a dollar to use an Internet cafe at some odd hour. Unfortunately, there is no coordinated effort to help them leverage the Internet access they do have. They are, however, benefiting enormously from the proliferation of inexpensive USB flash drives onto which they can store the files they work with. Software projects such as Wizzy Digital Courier and TiddlyWiki are also showing the way.

The issue has understandably lacked attention because "digital divide" projects often introduce the Internet to a new locality rather than help people make the best of what they have. Enthusiasts place their hopes in "leapfrogging" technologies by which the Internet will include everybody equally. However, around the world, there is an expanding spectrum of bandwidth as ever new uses push expectations further. It is difficult to serve those "in the ghetto of marginal Internet access" because the most successful are ever transcending their situation.

In 2003, our Minciu Sodas laboratory proposed a Social Networking Kit optimized for activists with marginal Internet access. We did not win funding, but slowly succeeded in organizing Africans. We discovered that by asking them to "work for free" on their own projects in the Public Domain, we were sorting out the self-directed workers who might dependably "meet us halfway" on "work for pay". In 2007, we concluded $24,000 of work for the Unamesa Association to collect 2,000 "food stories" for MyFoodStory.com with the help of 100 workers in Kenya, Serbia, Palestine, Cameroon, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Lithuania, India, US and Finland. For our next endeavor, I decided that it would be more "concrete", more understandable, if we proposed hardware and not simply software. Includer is the symbol for an entire ecosytem of services for people with marginal Internet access.

What specific, unique opportunity do you see that will make this project more successful than others trying to fill that general need? (325 words) Currently 0

Includer is special because we are reaching out to include each other as equals.

The Minciu Sodas laboratory celebrates the isolated individual, the “independent thinker” who has something to say because they know themselves, and has something to learn because they ask questions which they don't know the answer to, yet wish to answer. They are news sources whose significance is timeless and universal.

Our quest for more such “deep news” has us reach out to include the most isolated. We are therefore uniquely determined to avoid “feature creep” and to focus on that functionality which allows one to work openly on their values, investigations and endeavors. We require low power, simple interface, modular hardware, ubiquitous parts, local assembly.

Most important for us is the ability for people to participate effectively in online community even with marginal Internet access. We have discovered that daily, self-directed writing in an online community helps one grow as if they were attending college. Our African participants are being heard, making contacts, winning grants, finding paid work, traveling to conferences, organizing regional networks, learning skills, getting medicine, earning computers, video cameras, digital cameras, flash drives and software and reaching out to include others. We are aware of the assets that we are assembling with our human network: including a lurker represents $100 of effort, an occasional writer $1,000, and a daily writer $10,000. We are thus not so concerned about the price of the Includer, but rather on the potential that we liberate, especially as we pursue local assembly and personal content. Our focus is on including those who desire to work openly, unfold themselves and remake our world.

There is a need for many approaches to inclusion, such as laptops for school children and kiosks for village entrepreneurs. We are confident that all will be included if we include our equals, the “independent thinkers” who are marginalized locally because they think differently.

How will people learn about what you are doing? (2075 characters maximum, approximately 325 words) Currently 0

We are focusing our attention on “champions” who want to participate in Minciu Sodas and other such global online communities. We thus have an interest for participants to reach out further to represent, help, educate and include those who are even more isolated. We also have an ecosystem of overlapping social networks and many projects with many roles and this should introduce us all to a variety of people.

Includer will make it simple to share files among two USB flash drives. We are expanding the Internet (2.0!) to connect isolated individuals in an “offline file sharing network” or “Sneakernet”. We are facilitating the exchange of files including our online activity and this sharing will help draw attention to projects, to communities, to opportunities to participate and to the technology itself. We expect an explosion of sharing of information.

Much as with mobile phones, the technology will be available to those who wish to purchase it, but our main interest will be to link for long term relationships with people who have something of their own to say, to contribute.

We will pursue large friendly customers for whom we might expand and bolster their community online and on-the-ground. We will engage other online communities and encourage working openly on projects. This will help us reach new populations.

We will ask our African organizers to lead work in their local languages. We will rely on all possible channels, including SMS, community radio, Skype, RSS, wikis, blogs and local meetings.

We will also pursue knowledge work opportunities. The more levels of sustainable activity there are, the more we expect the Includer to spread.

Do you have any other funding or investment? We’re interested in knowing who else is interested in your project. (325 words) Currenlty 84

We have applied for the Hastac Innovation Awards for $100,000 and also for the Lithuania's Foreign Ministry's call for proposal for projects for the developing world for 2007 for $10,000. Please see our uploaded applications.

We will also apply for funding from Lithuania's Foreign Ministry's for 2008 for $30,000 and reply to its call to rebuild Afghanistan with a similar proposal to organize an "offline file sharing network" there because of the lack of electricity for $30,000 or more.

We will be seeking work and orders from manufacturers such as Coby or members of the USB Flash Drive Manufacturers Association. We are approaching the Corporate Social Responsibility offices of manufacturers such as Wincor-Nixdorf to ask for spare displays and parts.

We are seeking work from large customers such as WorldSpace, Peace Corps, WHO, Red Cross, BBC, CNN. We believe that they would benefit from an order of 100 Includers for $100,000 including support services and participation in our global and local networks.

We also have a strong gift economy of participants who host us (Italy, Vienna, Kenya, Lithuania, Chicago, California), donate computers, air fare, and provide small funds ($100) for small projects.

For current information please see our webite http://www.includer.org, Samwel Kongere's working group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mendenyo/ and many wiki pages organized at FlashDriveEditor

Are you working with anyone else to complete this project? If so, please give names and what they would do? (325 words) Currently 305

More than 70 people have already helped with our project or want to participate. Please see our list uploaded separately.

I am the founder of the Minciu Sodas laboratory. I am able to lead large global teams as I showed with our work on MyFoodStory. I can also architect and, where necessary, develop the Includer's software (most likely using Python with Linux and existing programs) and the web software for optimizing upload and download of content (I have already coded some of this with PHP and Perl). As an educator, I will organize the creation of learning materials in the Public Domain.

Kennedy Owino leads our "Inclusion" in the city. He has found an office for assembly and training in Nairobi, Kenya at an apartment building 1 km from the Kibera slums. Kennedy leads Nafsi Afrika Acrobats which mentors impoverished youth.

Samwel Kongere leads our "Inclusion" in the countryside. He is training 3,000 women in ICT and entrepreneurship in Mbita Point, Kenya.

Davide Lamanna and Nicolas Denis of Binario Etico in Rome, a leading cooperative in Italy's "trashware" movement, will provide a one-month course in computer assembly and a one-month course in electronics assembly. Kennedy, Samwel, Fred Kayiwa of Uganda, Sasha Mrkailo of Serbia, Maria Agnese Giraudo of Italy will take this course, as will a participant from Actwid Kongadzem, a women's organization in Cameroon, and Uyoga, a youth organization in Tanzania. They will learn and then teach soldering, splicing, cutting and other basic skills for assembling an Includer and also how to run a business repurposing old computers.

Davide and Nicolas will help us find "hardware hackers" in Rome who will help us get started with experiments using new and used displays (TVs, monitors, toys) and processors. Engineers from the UK, Brazil and Silicon Valley are advising us. Lonnie Hodge near Shezhen, China, "the USB flash drive capital of the world", will link us with Chinese innovators and entrepreneurs. We are also pursuing contacts in Lithuania, India and inner-city Chicago.

Who else is working in this area? How does your work fit into the larger context of work in this area? (325 words)

There are many projects (but not enough!) to develop inexpensive computers for use in Africa and around the world. The best known is One Laptop Per Child XO, and others include Inveneo, decTOP, Solo, ASUS Eee, Fit-PC. In general, the price of laptops and computers is falling. We are working openly so that we might integrate our work with others and even shift our focus if there is a better way that we might contribute.

Can we build an Includer without venture capital? Yes, from kit parts. We might use a 180 Mhz 2.4 watt Linseed processor board with Linux preinstalled (about $150 each) and a low-powered Kent display (less than $100). The first Includers might cost as much as $400, the price of a used laptop in rural Kenya. Which is better?

90% of Kenyans don't have electricity. For them, a 4 watt Includer is better than a 150 watt desktop computer or a 45 watt laptop computer. A modular design using any USB flash drive, computer keyboard, rechargeable D batteries is easy to share, replace, upgrade, extend and encourages the development of hand crafted cases, tripods, bags and extra hardware modules for wifi Internet or sound. A structured, menu driven interface, as used by mobile phones or MS-DOS applications, is simpler to master. Local assembly fosters rapid innovation, local adaptation, knowledge sharing, business service, marketable skills, entrepreneurial synergy and local self-esteem.

We will approach makers of supermarket cash registers, digital photo frames, game boys, toy computers, and other devices. We will look for synergy with producers of electric generators and radios. We will try to make use of all channels for moving data including satellite radio. Our network of champions and our network of assemblers will be relevant regardless of which technical solutions may thrive.

Please note that our laboratory's work is in the Public Domain, copyright free, except as noted otherwise. We hope to negotiate with you such terms - we are active in the European Union's thematic network for the Public Domain.

What do you guarantee will happen if you complete the activities in this proposal? (325 words) Currently 0

Our first concern is that our participants in Africa benefit from their participation. We believe that the poor should not have to speculate and although we expect all of us to “work for free” on our own projects we are responsible to respond to their participation and make it worth their while.

Recently, we worked on My Food Story for six months and organized 100 participants to collect 2,000 stories. Unfortunately, we did not generate enough momentum for the website to roll forward on its own. We did make sure that all of our team's work was in the Public Domain so that we or others might continue. We are happy that our participants have stayed active at our laboratory and have benefited in many ways. Story collection and agricultural projects have grown central at our laboratory. Our instinct is to focus on our team rather than our project.

Includer does represent a “keystone species” in the ecosystem of “marginal Internet access” which is of great relevance to our mission to serve independent thinkers. We expect to achieve certain milestones. We will assemble and deliver 200 Includers and include into online community at least that many champions. We will grow in Africa a network of assemblers and champions to lead this ecosystem, which includes designing Includers, importing parts, training assemblers, assembling Includers, identifying independent thinkers, nurturing them, distributing Includers, training champions how to use them and participate in online community, organizing sneakernets, providing batteries or electricity, collecting stories, data and content in the Public Domain, creating educational software and websites, developing the Includer interface, developing online software for downloading and uploading, creating finding and doing knowledge work, and offering local services,

We aim to bring the price of parts down to below $200 and to bring the wattage down to 3 watts. We aim to get an order for 100 Includers. We will include at least 1,000 participants in Africa and around the world.

You may attach optional supporting material. The first file you upload will be your cover, so if you are uploading an image upload it as the first file.

Notes and Suggestions

From Ricardo - Andrius, I've added comments in various sections in italics, can you use whatever bits you want please, and check word-count, spelling, etc?.

From Ricardo - Perhaps "...is as powerful as a 1980s computer" would lead to less mis-understanding".

From Ricardo - Please use any bits you like, in any section of the submission - Somewhere in the article, I think we need to emphasise one USP (Unique Selling Point), that 'lack of electricity' is the stumbling-block/show-stopper for many projects or improvements to peoples lives. Unlike commercial computers, the includer is ultra low power and supported by a network of people to provide charging points for batteries (main/renewable) and take batteries to/from those points - The service is called the Sneakernet. I mentioned in some posting that the Sneakernet could be in layers, like the internet OSI 7-Layer model. There could be a real physical network of people in Sneakers/on foot/on bikes to transport anything. On top of that, you add specific services; re-chargeable batteries, flash-drives full of email-text-files/other files/web-pages/wiki-pages/etc, paper-printouts, CD/DVDs, cheap MP3 players with audio-books, etc. Some of these are for the includer, some for other projects. The physical transport system is a shared resource, sharing staff and any fees/salaries. It could be used as a shared-resource, not just by the Includer project, but for newspaper deliveries, delivery of goods bought 'online', milk, vegetables, etc. Some people think everyone must have internet access, but it's not available or unaffordable. We can say that the internet isn't the only way to transport files from A to B, people, $1 CDs or $10 Flash Drives can do the job anywhere (it's important to include the price to show it's not just a pipe-dream). The low cost and 'Anywhere' means it can be rolled out across Africa/Eastern Europe/South America. Also, a Sneakernet is a simple, understandable, adaptable system.

From Ricardo - Some USPs and advertising-spin for the Includer - It has 'low barriers-to-entry, it gives people access to information age. This isn't just an empty term, they can access the 29 Billion web-pages on the internet by asking friends to find things, use email, send/recieve photos, and correspond with anyone they share a common interest with world-wide, they can ask for help and information on any subject, they can form virtual communities (e.g. farmers co-operatives, bulk-buying groups, health/education groups, talk to all 3 Million Dholuo speakers near Western Kenya, etc). It opens up the possibility of paid Knowledge Work on the Includer computer and being part of a larger computer-based project, as a writer, programmer, web-designer, artist, musician, etc. See 'Income from Small Computer-Related Tasks' for one idea that we are working on - http://incomefromsmallcomputertasks.googlepages.com/ (Andrius, that page has an email address of mine at the bottom, but I can change it. Should we link to it at all? Does it open up too many off-topic things?

From Ricardo - Andrius, on my Ricardo profile page, there's a list of Worknet pages I'm involved with. One of those provides a link to my new page for FundraisingTrainingPackage . Another one that may be of interest is InternetAccessByMobilePhone - we may be able to give people access to the internet on an includer by linking it with a USB Bluetooth stick, by short-range radio (a few feet), to a Bluetooth phone, or by IRDa Infra Red link or USB Cable. It would avoid a trip to a cyber-cafe, and the high fees. They would use the 'always on' GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) feature to access the internet. You pay by the kilobyte, not by the hour, so inactivity costs nothing. Costs can be limited by only using pre-pay cards, so you can't exceed what you can afford. People could acces the internet and use email or access Wikis from home or school, or in-the-street as roving news reporters . We would need to point out, that the Includer allows people to type up full-length news stories for submission to news organizations, not just send a phone text-message, the graphics capability, may even allow them to submit drawings, such as diagrams of road-accidents with cars/road-layout/buildings, etc.

From Ricardo - I'm involved with Sneakernet, KnowledgeWork, FundraisingTrainingPackage, InternetAccessByMobilePhone, FlashDriveEditor, WiFi, ICTTraining, Broadcast, ObtainingComputers.

''From Ricardo - The emphasis is on news, especially local news that people care about and affects their lives. I looked up the dictionary definition of News at http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&pwst=1&defl=en&q=define:news&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title It says new information about specific and timely events; "they awaited news of the outcome" , new information of any kind; "it was news to me" , news program: a program devoted to news; "we watch the 7 o'clock news every night" information reported in a newspaper or news magazine; "the news of my death was greatly exaggerated" newsworthiness: the quality of being sufficiently interesting to be reported in news bulletins; "the judge conceded the newsworthiness of the trial"; "he is no longer news in the fashion world" wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn . So, in the entry we can emphasise that the Includer allows people to communicate news (information you didn't know already, unlike 24 hour TV news), local news people care about and affecting their lives, new information of any kind (inc. entertainment, new clubs, school news, news of groups they are friends with, etc.''

From Ricardo - We can also emphsise that the Includer allows people to fill many roles in a news organization; they don't just send in the raw facts to a newsdesk, they can be part of a distributed newspaper office, they can write-up their own/other people's stories, act as editors or sub-editors, layout the pages of printed publications, layout news web-pages, record audio-reports, etc..

From Ricardo - We could say that we want to improve the quality of news, without sacrificing timeliness. The Includer allows us distribute training material and provide mentoring for budding journalists. They are part of a human support network, not just a Commercial-PC Customer. They can be taught the rules of questioning the credibility of sources, double checking with two credible/official sources perhaps via other journalists in the network (some with internet access), checking facts on the net/against stored info, etc. The timeliness comes from using a lot of people in parallel/simultaneously. Some 24 Hour TV News channels sometimes just slap a story on their Breaking News Ticker, then check it's validity later.

From Ricardo - see blocks of comments near the top of the page. Please move any bits you like to here (it tackles the lack of electricity, it's supported by a Sneakernet network of local people to transport batteries, flash-drive, paper, etc, the Sneakernet provides employment, involves a lot of learning-by-doing, and involves so many people and their friends and family that it advertises itself for free. I just thought of that!

From Ricardo - There are 2 groups of people that will learn about what we're doing; the user-community and the wider international-world.

For the user-community, the Includer and it's support network will be publicised initally by the community-groups who will form the heart of that support network, their friends and extended families, word-of-mouth, etc. When users actually have the Includer in their possesion, they are likely to share the use of it with a lot of people. We tend to think of a 'Personal Computer' as private personal property. Other cultures emphasise communal activities. In addition, any affordable traditional news media can be used (newspaper press-releases/adverts, local radio, community-radio, hand-bills, etc). Some communities will find out about it via the few people with internet-access at cyber-cafes, schools, etc.

For the international community, we will have a publicity/support website and use all affordable means to publicise it; automatic 'signatures' at the end of emails with a link, press-releases, postings in forums, links in eZine adverts, press-releases, adverts in specialised offline media, such as teacher's magzines, computer-magazines, stands at shows, etc. One advantage is that the Includer is backed by a big group of people and contacts.

As part of a seperate project, we intend to produce a free 'Fundraising Training Package' for NGOs, non-profits, schools, or anyone to use. It will include how to set up a simple website, register as a charity/non-profit, use all the above publicity/advertising methods, how to monitor performance, etc. Any software, web-templates, training-material, videos, audio-books, software, etc, will be Free Open-Source, for others to use and adapt.

Explanation of the Competition

You have been invited by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to submit a full, formal proposal as part of the Knight News Challenge competition.

THE KNIGHT NEWS CHALLENGE INITIATIVE SEEKS

• New ways for people to communicate interactively to help people better understand one another in geographic communities, share know-how and generate passion in solving local problems;
• New ways for people to use information, news and journalism in geographic communities to imagine their collective possibilities as communities, and to set and reach common community goals;
• New ways to dig for news and act on it in geographic communities, including new ways to collect, prepare and distribute information, news and journalism that reveals hard-to-know facts, identifies common problems, clarifies community issues or points out practical courses of action.

In the words of Jack Knight: Thus we seek to bestir the people into an awareness of their own condition, provide inspiration for their thoughts and rouse them to pursue their true interests.

By submitting this proposal the applicant represents to Knight Foundation that:

1. The work is solely that of the applicant or people working with applicant who make these same representations to Knight Foundation;
2. The applicant has not infringed on the rights of anyone else in creating the work;
3. The applicant indemnifies Knight against any claim of infringement of rights by others.

Knight Foundation is under no obligation to fund or otherwise have a future relationship with the applicant. If it does choose to have a relationship, Knight Foundation may suggest various kinds of relationships, including contracts, grants, loans, program-related investments, or other kinds of investments and relationships.

Awards in the Idea category will be licensed under a Creative Commons, Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share-Alike license. (Andrius: If we win, then we will argue persuasively (!) that Public Domain is more appropriate in our case.)

To encourage truly creative ideas and initiatives, the Foundation will consider, on request, ways to keep such ideas confidential during the application process. Please contact the Foundation if you have major concerns about protecting your ideas or initiatives so that we can see if we can work with you to achieve your objectives.

Groups publicly working on their proposals

http://pages.e-democracy.org/Knight_News_Challenge_2007_drafting

AboutThisPage

• FlashDriveEditor=News Challenge grant
• FlashDriveEditorTask=Write full proposal due on November 1, 2007
• ProposalSummary=We're asking 170,000 USD for local assembly in Kenya of 200 USB flash drives.
• ProposalLeader=AndriusKulikauskas
• ProposalStatus=Our proposal won but was not funded. Instead, Andrius was given 15,000 USD to blog about the idea at the PBS website.
• GrantSummary=Digital innovation for local news.
• GrantDeadline=October 15, 2007 for initial proposal. November 1, 2007 for full proposal.