Knight Foundation

Cross-posted from infoneeds.org In opening remarks, Alberto Ibargüen cites Clay Shirky's argument for cognitive surplus. Shirkey believes that new technologies enable collaboration, take advantage of 'spare' brainpower and can change the way society works. He argues that the time Americans once spent watching television has been redirected toward activities that are less about consuming and more about engaging'from Flickr and Facebook to powerful forms of online political action.) And these efforts aren't fueled by external rewards but by intrinsic motivation'the joy of doing something for its own sake. As a route towards action, rather than an escape from it, technology and media have never looked more potent than they do today. This is a big idea for community foundations. Perhaps the most amazing fact about Knight's incisive initiative for building a better world is...

Cross-posted from infoneeds.org My name is Dale and I’m the blogger. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, a few words on what the guy in the lavender shirt and designer suit ( so Miami .. ) is doing here: I’m posting stories and insights from MLS to the Knight site, the sorta official blogger for the conference. I’ve done this for a coupla years now. It’s a gas and always an education. I appreciate Knight asking me back. I’m the co-founder, curator and catalyst for We Media, a digital innovation company that stirs big ideas about media and society. We stir and stimulate transitioning companies and organizations, as well as provide investment and guidance to startups and entrepreneurial journalists. We conduct the annual We Media conference and Pitch It! Investment Challenge, which are being in New York City on April 6. The conference was held here in Miami the previous four years. Knight has been a great supporter. Alberto Ibargüen first brought the conference to Miami, and Knight currently funds our pre-Pitch It! boot camp for entrepreneurs. Knight has been a partner in change. We share an enthusiasm for inspiring ideas that inform and impact communities and the people know and understand. We Media is focused on the people and plans that have turned the world upside down overnight. You’ll hear a few of them here. I’ll be weighing in throughout the conference. I’ll be following your tweets at #infoneeds. You can email me at [email protected] Or you can find me in the back of the room beneath the imposing lighting structure. I’m the guy in the lavender shirt and nice suit. A post from the 2011 Media Learning Seminar. At Knight Foundation’s Media Learning Seminar, community and place-based foundation leaders meet with journalism and technology experts to explore the topic of community information needs. Follow the event on Twitter at #infoneeds and @knightfdn.

What do you do when you're the parent of a profoundly deaf child seeking the best education and community possible? If you're Devorah Ben-Moshe, you and your family moves to Austin, Texas, where The Texas School for the Deaf offers some of the best education--and the best community--in the world. But you don't stop there--concerned with civic engagement and aware of the ways non-hearing people can be shut out of discussion about civic issues, you form a non-profit organization----Civication Inc--with a friend and then go out and apply for--and get-- a John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Community Information Challenge grant to start an online and TV show called ACCESS News, a monthly news and entertainment program for hearing-impaired youth. Also funded by The Austin Community Foundation, which raised money to match the Knight funds, ACCESS News will have a home page hosted on Austin PBS station KLRU and be broadcast on that station The program, anchored by an ASL speaker, will bring national, state, and local news and information to a wide deaf audience at the same time it makes the hearing world aware of issues in deaf culture and news. The goal, says Ben-Moshe, is to...