Jose Zamora is a Journalism Program Associate at Knight Foundation

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, gave the opening remarks at the SWSW Interactive Festival at the Austin Convention Center.

Hsieh talked about how a genuine customer service culture and setting core values extended the reach and strengthened their brand.

How can Knight Foundation translate this into better grantmaking? Would our grantees improve the self-sustainability of their projects by developing a set of core values and focusing on customer service? We expect these two elements from every grantee and we ask questions that cover these elements in general, but are they something that we should specifically ask for in our application process?

The craft of journalism is all about core values and public service. How can core values and public/customer service improve the flow of news and information in communities and increase readership and civic engagement?

Please share your thoughts with us.

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