Articles by

Bob Andelman

  • Article

    Crisis Text Line finds a niche, and keeps growing

    Published November 8, 2017 by

    This piece is one of a series that looks at the Knight News Challenge winners, and their thoughts on future trends, on the occasion of the challenge’s 10th anniversary. There is no other way to say it: Growth at Crisis Text Line – an emergency service for people at wit’s end – is, sadly, explosive.In October, the four-year-old service crossed a major milestone when it processed its 50 millionth text message. That is the number 50, followed by six zeroes.If that doesn’t really capture the organization’s progress, try this number on for impact:“If you look at our growth trajectory,” says founder Nancy Lublin, “it’s going to take us nine months to do the next 50 million. We’re growing really fast.”She says there are two main reasons why Crisis Text Line, which won a 2014 Knight News Challenge and has received subsequent funding from the foundation, is seeing its numbers skyrocket.
  • Article

    DocumentCloud goes from startup to newsroom standard

    Published November 2, 2017 by

    This piece is one of a series that looks at the Knight News Challenge winners, and their thoughts on future trends, on the occasion of the challenge’s 10th anniversary. Aron Pilhofer, co-founder of DocumentCloud, was running a product technology team at The New York Times and experiencing great frustration with the way journalists there – and at most newspapers – published documents online.
  • Article

    ‘Life between the shelves’: Reimagining libraries as civic spaces

    Published April 17, 2017 by

    This post is third in a series about a gathering of library directors Knight Foundation convened in Miami Feb. 11-12, 2017, as part of its continuing work with libraries. Knight Foundation also recently released a report “Developing Clarity: Innovating in Library Systems,” and announced a package of funding to support innovation in libraries. Brian Bannon opened with a succinct and pointed question:“How many people have done library renovation in the last five years?” he asked. “And in the last two years?”As hands shot up on the afternoon of the second day of Knight Foundation’s library directors’ meeting, on Feb. 12, the mini-panel “Libraries as a Civic Space” got off to a fast start, with Bannon, commissioner and CEO of the Chicago Public Library, and Marie Ostergaard, head of community engagement, partnerships and communication for Dokk1 in Aarhus, Denmark.“That’s a lot of people,” Bannon said, looking out over the group of 40 directors. “How many people have one coming up on some level in the next two years?”
  • Article

    Enabling innovation in libraries

    Published April 3, 2017 by

    This post is second in a series about a gathering of library directors Knight Foundation convened in Miami Feb. 11-12, 2017, as part of its continuing work with libraries. Knight Foundation also recently released a report “Developing Clarity: Innovating in Library Systems,” and announced a package of funding to support innovation in libraries. The second day of the Knight Foundation’s library directors’ meeting, on Feb. 12, began with “Making Innovation Happen in a Constrained Environment,” a mini-panel featuring Melanie Huggins, executive director of the Richland Library in Columbia, South Carolina, and Story Bellows, chief innovation and performance officer of the Brooklyn Public Library.
  • Article

    Innovation, an essential pursuit for libraries in the digital age

    Published March 30, 2017 by

    This post is one in a series about a gathering of library directors Knight Foundation convened in Miami Feb. 11-12, 2017, as part of its continuing work with libraries. Today, Knight Foundation is also releasing a report “Developing Clarity: Innovating in Library Systems,” and announcing a package of funding to support innovation in libraries. The biggest challenges facing library organizations, according to Knight Foundation survey data, are funding, staff time, resources…and lack of resources.      They all affect what libraries can do, what choices they can make to be more effective, and the way they pursue innovation.