knight news challenge year 3 assessment
DESCRIPTION
Evaluating the projects in the 2009 winners cohort.TRANSCRIPT
August 2012 / Prepared by Michael Maness & Mayur Patel
2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
MEDIA INNOVATIONINSIGHTS
‘07 ‘08 ‘09 ‘10 ‘11
Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
A CONTEST TO ACCELERATE INNOVATION
The Knight News Challenge is a five-year media innovation contest designed to reward new ideas for gathering, sharing and using local news and information.News Challenge winners must:
1 Use innovative open-source digital technology
2 Distribute news in the public interest
3 Test in a local community
Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
WHO DID WE FUND?
Overview of 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners by Type & Grant Amount
NON-PROFITS INDIVIDUALS
6 3APPLICANTS
2,323
NEW PROJECTSAT EXISTING
ENTITIES
SCALED UP PROJECTSAT EXISTING ENTITIES
START UPPROJECTS
Virtual Street Corners
$40K
City Circles / Daily Phoenix
$101K
CMS UploadUtility$ 11K
WINNERS
9AWARDED
1.9M$
MediaBugs $335K DocumentCloud
$719K
Data Visualization
$244K
Mobile Media Toolkit $200K
Ushahidi $70K
Councilpedia $250K
Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
A PROJECTTHAT SCALED A platform to help reporters annotate
and share source documents.
Document Uploads
CASE STUDY
Page Views JUNE 111,589 Document uploads
777,698 Page views
JANUARY Opened document
repository to publicsearches
JUNE Release of Sarah Palin’s emails and documents from Rod Blagojevich’scorruption scandalcause spike in traffic
MARCHInitial release of
Document Viewer, a module for extracting
text, rendering images and creating PDFs
2009 2010 2011 2012
AWARDED
$719K
TOTAL PAGES
DOCUMENT UPLOADS
4.6M
300K
AS OF MAY 2012
ACTIVE USERS
1.8K
ORGANIZATIONS
600
REPORTER ANNOTATIONS
51K
DocumentCloud
2012
Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
MediaBugs
Despite adding multiple components over time, MediaBugs was unable to gain traction.
Page Views
Page Visits
APR 2010 2011 JAN 2012
8,415 PAGE VIEWS
APRILLaunch of MediaBugs error reporting site. MediaBugs Widget released at the same time.
OCTOBERTracking software opened to organizations across the US
JUNE17 bugs filed
APR 2000 MAR 2012
On average 7 bugs filed per month
NOVEMBERLaunch of Report an Error Alliance, an advocacy effort for transparency in error reporting.
FEBRUARYWordpress plugin released
1,500PAGE VIEWS
AWARDED
$335K
ERRORS (’BUGS’)FILED BY READERS
A PROJECTTHAT STALLEDCASE STUDY
A service that allows readers to report errors in media coverage
Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
A NEED YOU CAN FEEL
No. 1
LESSONSLEARNEDTAKEAWAYS
Resolve a pressing problem for a well-defined audience. Having a single focus provides clear goals and refines the product to meet the needs of the target audience.
Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
No. 2TAKEAWAYS Networks
Support outreach and broker partnerships
Leadership Combine a startups focus on strong tech and coding skills, with broader project management capacities
The benefits of havingan experienced institution to house your project and grow your ideas.
ExperienceGet access to legal assistance to incorporate and auditors to help with payroll and bookkeepingTHE WISDOM
THAT NURTURES INNOVATION
LESSONSLEARNED
Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
CODE LEVEL PRACTICESIntegrate open source code development into all aspects of a project’s design.
No. 3
LESSONSLEARNEDTAKEAWAYS
1 2 3Translate, modify and use existing code
Release code early and often, with documentation that makes it easy for others to follow and contribute
Build individual components, knowing that some elements may have uses beyond the focus of your project
To build a robust community of developers and contributors:
Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
CULTIVATE EVANGELISTS
No. 4
Identify web-savvy advocates in influential newsrooms to champion the product and overcome barriers to adoption.
Internal evangelists enable adoptionwithin their own
media organizations
Evangelists also serve as trouble-shooters providing quick and
easy support for other potential adopters
LESSONSLEARNEDTAKEAWAYS
Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
HOW WE CAN IMPROVE AT KNIGHTTAKEAWAYS
BETTER DIALOGUEProvide opportunities for more frequent communication between foundation staff and grantees. Stay up-to-date on winners’ progress and troubleshoot as needed.
Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
Help grantees plan for their marketing and outreach needs as part of their project budgeting. Use Knight’s own networks and communications to further assist grantees.
ATTENTION TO MARKETING
TAKEAWAYS
HOW WE CAN IMPROVEAT KNIGHT
2009 Interim Review Knight News Challenge
Provide additional ways for news challenge winners to connect with each other through small gatherings throughout the year in addition to the annual MIT Civic Media Conference.
NETWORKING WITH INTENTION
HOW WE CAN IMPROVE AT KNIGHTTAKEAWAYS
WHAT’S NEXT
Here’s what we’re doing in 2012:
1 2 3MORE Three contests in 2012
FASTER Each contest runs for 12 weeks
FOCUSED Themed contests focused on specific issues
The review of 2009 winners is part of a larger review of the News Challenge. We are continuing to track the results of the 2010 and 2011 winners.
‘07 ‘08 ‘10‘09 ‘11 ‘12