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    Attracting and retaining young professionals in Akron

    Published March 8, 2012 by

    Torchbearers Board members at their Community Leaders Reception at the Akron Civic Theater.   Knight Foundation recently awarded $50,000 to Torchbearers, an organization dedicated to attracting and retaining young professionals in Akron. The funding supports a new program called “Be The Change” in which members identify their passion and create a plan for initiating community change while building strong relationships with community leaders. Knight’s focus is to promote an informed and engaged Akron by developing and engaging the next generation of talent. This program is a chance for emerging leaders to identify opportunity and environments for change, embrace risk and receive guidance from local seasoned mentors. The Akron Beach Journal profiled the launch of Torchbearers noting: "the funds [will] allow the group of about 95 members to build a curriculum with professional facilitation to empower participants to spark positive change for Akron."
  • Article

    “Message & Medium” at PhilaMOCA

    Published March 8, 2012 by

    The show “Message & Medium” had its opening at PhilaMOCA on Thursday, March 1. Its name is taken from the famous assertion by Marshall McLuhan that “the medium is the message.” In this exhibit, assembled by artist and curator Gaby Heit, some 20 artists display work, which is in some...
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    What’s in a name: Broad definition for “news” in Knight News Challenge

    Published March 8, 2012 by

    Note: To apply for the News Challenge, and read our FAQ, visit NewsChallenge.org. We’ve spoken to some potential applicants over the last week who have worried that their projects may not be “newsy” enough for the News Challenge.   The idea might not be in the strictest sense - but that shouldn’t stop them from submitting. Sure, “news” is in the challenge’s name. But over the course of running challenge, we’ve learned that many interesting ideas for informing and engaging communities may not, at first blush, be easily classified as news. In the recent past, we’ve funded data visualization projects and data scrapers, for example. In this current contest, our focus is on projects that use networks to help communities get the information they need. We’ll fund projects that use existing software and platforms to deliver news and information.
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    The Civic Commons shows impact in Northeast Ohio

    Published March 8, 2012 by

    Knight funds The Civic Commons to build on existing citizen engagement efforts to provide new ways for citizens to learn about local issues. Here, Dan Moulthrop from The Civic Commons, writes about its impact. Sam Bell is an auto mechanic in an inner ring suburb of Cleveland. He calls himself an "eco-conscious" auto mechanic, and what that means, practically, is that he recycles everything he can at his garage (The Lusty Wrench), and he rides his bike to work every day. It also means that he takes a very active interest in his community. As the Cleveland Heights-University Heights school district began public engagement on their proposed strategic plan, he grew worried that the district's commitment to sustainability was little more than "lip service." He had tried to raise this at public meetings but to no avail. So, in late December, he turned to The Civic Commons and invited the community to join in a conversation about his ideas. At first, no one seemed to be paying attention.  Since then, though, a few hundred people have accessed the conversation and almost 30 have participated in some fashion. The real success, though, lies in the fact that as a result of his efforts online and in the community, Sam recently got a meeting with the district superintendent. Here's what he posted on the Commons about that meeting: "We wound up spending nearly an hour together, instead of the 20 minutes I had asked for.  I think neither of us was unhappy about having spent so long....I invited him to call the Cambridge MA Supt of Schools, whom he turns out to know through involvement in a committee on which they both serve, to ask about their experience.  He is willing to do so, and has asked me to furnish him information from other school systems which have managers of sustainability in place."
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    Election perceptions: From thoughtful data crunch to wild media hunch

    Published March 8, 2012 by

    Today we serve up the first of three election/media blog posts. They’ll range from serious data analysis (today), to a story tip and a wild hunch about media history. This season’s Super Tuesday primary races were covered by the full-fledged data-mapping project Patchwork Nation, founded with Knight funds, and now run through the nonpartisan Jefferson Institute. Patchwork Nation’s creator, journalist and author Dante Chinni, has mapped America, diving it into 12 “voter communities” – ranging from tractor country to monied burbs – each a social-demographic type, each a different color in the embeddable maps. Using Patchwork Nation, instead of red states and blue states, we see all the colors of the American political scene. The widely used mapping system has become a book.   This post shows the Ohio map generated by Super Tuesday. Hover over the voter type and see how the Republican candidates did in this key race, narrowly won by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
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    On display through spring at the Ohr-O’Keefe

    Published March 7, 2012 by

    By Barbara Johnson Ross, Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art Among the permanent exhibitions, George Edgar Ohr: Selections from Gulf Coast Collections highlights work of “The Mad Potter of Biloxi” with pottery from Gulf Coast collectors and from the collection of the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art. The Pleasant Reed Interpretive Center provides...
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    Open preferred, not required in Knight News Challenge

    Published March 7, 2012 by

    Last week, I described our approach to open source software in the News Challenge. We support open source and strongly encourage applicants in the contest to use it. Similarly, we think ideas are strengthened, and society most benefits, when they’re shared and discussed publicly. As such, we’ve set the default for the Challenge to public: you post an idea on the News Challenge Tumblr. You, and your networks, can promote it. Others can critique it, suggest collaborators or point you to similar ideas. In the future we hope that the News Challenges will be seen more as a platform for the exchange of ideas than as a source of funds. Someone recently mentioned to me that her company is eager to enter, but that they were apprehensive about possible negative reactions to a public proposal. We realize, however, that some (mostly organizations, but some individuals, too) do not want to share their ideas in public. That’s why we do allow you to skirt the public Tumblr should you choose. To keep your idea between yourself and us, email your answers to the 7 questions to us at [email protected] We will evaluate your application just as we will the other ones, albeit without the benefit of public discussion. (You may want to use this News Challenge collaborative editor from Charlie DeTar to compose and copy your entry.)
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    Videos explore the role of libraries in communities & visions for the future

    Published March 7, 2012 by

      Ever wonder what libraries will look like in the future? And how they’re partnering with people in their communities to address information needs? During a Knight conference exploring the role of libraries in the digital world, we interviewed library directors from eight communities - Philadelphia, St. Paul, Macon, Charlotte, Miami, Akron, San Jose and Detroit - to ask these questions and more. Hear what library directors from these communities say are their biggest successes and listen to insights in how they’re addressing challenges. In these videos, library directors also share what projects they’ve developed to help better serve their communities. The Free Library of Philadelphia, for example, was able to involve itself more deeply in communities by creating hot spots in areas with limited digital access.  
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    Charlotte hosts entrepreneur competition to address community issues

    Published March 7, 2012 by

    Meet Julie Jones, a second-grade teacher with a big idea. She was the winner at the first annual social entrepreneur competition, organized by Charlotte's Social Venture Partners and supported by Knight Foundation. Eighty-two organizations applied. Twenty finalists were selected, and then 40 volunteer coaches worked with the 2012 class to hone their messages and their 3-minute TED talk-like presentations. All were terrific, but Julie especially so. Her idea: a grub composting program that uses a bioconversion process to divert food waste from our landfills while producing protein-rich chicken and fish feed.  And how did she come to this idea? By watching her students dump food in the cafeteria trash cans each day.
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    A roundup of events for young cultural explorers

    Published March 7, 2012 by

    Spring break is coming up next week, and that’s got me scrambling to find things to keep my elementary schooler occupied in the coming days. Poking around various arts calendars and press releases, I’ve particularly noticed a number of intriguing activities for families looking for a bit of cultural adventure....
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    JumpStart invests in Akron start up

    Published March 6, 2012 by

    JumpStart has invested $250,000 in an Akron-based company that uses an adhesive pad to dissipate heat generated in computers and electronics. The adhesive was inspired by the properties of the footpads of geckos, the small lizards that are able to climb walls. JumpStart, in part funded by Knight Foundation, has invested $2.75 million in Akron-based companies. The news was featured in the Saturday edition of the Akron Beacon Journal in an article "Gecko feet inspire startup business, attract money."  Last month, Knight Foundation announced a $1 million grant to Jumpstart to support an effort to bring a new model for engaging residents in fostering entrepreneurship to 20 cities across the country.
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    iWitness Aims to Aggregate News By Time and Place

    Published March 6, 2012 by

    The following, written by 2011 News Challenge Winner iWitness, is crossposted from PBS Media Shift. By Jesse James Garrett: Let's face it: The great promise of citizen media has not really been fulfilled. News organizations have struggled to find ways to supplement their coverage of news events with contributions from citizens -- and finding citizen media related to a news event is currently difficult at best. Keyword searches and hashtags provide partial solutions, but still do not differentiate between first-person accounts and other kinds of content. And although more and more services allow their content to be geotagged, few tools take advantage of this data in meaningful ways. That's where we come in. My company, Adaptive Path, is a user experience design firm based in San Francisco, and with funding from the Knight News Challenge, we're building a tool that we call iWitness.