From Barry Lampke of the Champlain Initiative…
Enter to Win an iPod Nano 8GB By Participating in Internet Access and Affordability Survey!
Do you have Internet access at home? Is your cellphone prepaid or contract? How much do you pay each month for Internet, phone and TV? As a partner in the Champlain Initiative’s Changing Face of Chittenden County project, we are helping promote a brief survey to better understand how you use and pay for information/communications technologies, such as home Internet, cellphone and TV. Concerned that people without affordable access are being left out of the digital revolution, project partners are exploring changes to improve access and affordability. Please complete the survey, and visit the Champlain Initiative’s website to see what others are saying.
James Fallows article about Google and the news industry is worth a read. He hears from several Googlers who think that it’s all about (1) distribution, (2) engagement and (3) monetization. All critical elements, of course, but what’s missing is the dumbing-down of news we’ve witnessed over the past few decades. What do these elements matter — reaching people, getting them to read, and turning a buck — when all you have to offer is USAToday-type snippet-size pieces about the same topics over and over?
Here’s how Google’s Krishna Bharat put it in Fallows’ piece…
… he said that what astonished him was the predictable and pack-like response of most of the world’s news outlets to most stories. Or, more positively, how much opportunity he saw for anyone who was willing to try a different approach.
The Google News front page is a kind of air-traffic-control center for the movement of stories across the world’s media, in real time. “Usually, you see essentially the same approach taken by a thousand publications at the same time,” he told me. “Once something has been observed, nearly everyone says approximately the same thing.” He didn’t mean that the publications were linking to one another or syndicating their stories. Rather, their conventions and instincts made them all emphasize the same things. This could be reassuring, in indicating some consensus on what the “important” stories were. But Bharat said it also indicated a faddishness of coverage—when Michael Jackson dies, other things cease to matter—and a redundancy that journalism could no longer afford. “It makes you wonder, is there a better way?” he asked. “Why is it that a thousand people come up with approximately the same reading of matters? Why couldn’t there be five readings? And meanwhile use that energy to observe something else, equally important, that is currently being neglected.” He said this was not a purely theoretical question. “I believe the news industry is finding that it will not be able to sustain producing highly similar articles.”
Moderating Front Porch Forum in our region while monitoring the local media in our corner of Vermont, I can share that “tonight’s top stories,” as decided by local professional editors, don’t always align with what neighbors are discussing on FPF. Indeed, a service like FPF is a great way to uncover the other hundred stories that don’t get picked up by traditional local media.
Great news for the people of Vermont… Vtdigger.org just landed a grant to further develop their statewide news platform. Congratulations Anne Galloway and Vtdigger.org! From the Knight-funded grant giver…
Nine promising community news projects from across the U.S. have been selected as this year’s New Voices grant winners. Each can receive up to $25,000 to launch a news initiative and work to sustain it over the next two years, J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism announced today…
This year’s winners were selected from a competitive field of 284 applicants. Including the new grantees, a total of 55 community start-ups have been funded from 1,533 entries since 2005. Of the 46 projects that have already launched over the last five years, 30, or 65 percent, are still going strong, five are working to launch or re-launch, and 11 did not continue after the two-year grant cycle…
Tipster at VTDigger.org – This news start-up covering Vermont plans to build a crowdsourcing platform called Tipster to help develop stories. Using Tipster, readers and reporters will collaborate and exchange information to build in-depth reports. Future support is expected from business and college sponsorships…
Good magazine included Burlington’s Five Sisters on its list of five “of the nation’s (in)famous neighborhoods” (Spring 2010, p. 43). It’s a bit silly… the breakdown…
Five Sisters, Burlington, Vermont
- AKA: South End
- Archetypal architecture: Cap Cods, foursquares, stone bungalows, lots of porches
- Preferred community event: appreciating nature
- Claim to fame: beards, color-changing leaves
- Notable residents: Ted Bundy, Howard Dean (or, the Five Sisters environs)
- Kindred spirit: Whitaker, Eugene, Oregon; all of Boulder, Colorado
Also, in “What’s in a Name?” on page 48…
Named because the five main streets in the area — Catherine, Caroline, Margaret, Charlotte, and Marian — were named for the daughters of the developer.
Not true, if I recall from past Front Porch Forum postings. But fun, nonetheless.
The exciting new e-Vermont initiative is kicking off this Friday. Two dozen lucky Vermont towns will be on the receiving end of $3.7 million worth of access, gear, expertise and services to help their communities take full advantage of broadband internet access. We’re thrilled to expand Front Porch Forum through this new program.
So… which Vermont towns should be on the receiving end of this program? Leave a comment below. And, if you want to apply on behalf of your town, get in touch with VCRD immediately!
Media Alert
Contact: Paul Costello, VCRD Ex. Dir.
802 223-6091, info@vtrural.org
PO Box 1384 , Montpelier, VT 05601New e-Vermont Partnership Launches $3.8 million Community Development Project
Press Conference to Preview e-Vermont Community Project
Friday, April 9, 2010
11am
Vermont State House
Cedar Creek Room1. Project Background and nutshell summary
2. The role of e-Vermont partners:
-Heather Chirtea, Digital Wish
-Paul Costello, Vermont Council on Rural Development
-Mary Evslin, Evslin Family Foundation
-Christopher Kaufman-Ilstrup, VT Community Foundation
-Lenae Quillen-Blume, VT Small Business Development Center
-Martha Reid, VT Department of Libraries
-Mark Snelling, Snelling Center
-Karrin Wilks, VT State Colleges
-Michael Wood-Lewis, Front Porch Forum
Press Q&A(MONTPELIER) The two-year, $3.8 million e-Vermont Community Broadband Project is a bold new initiative to help rural Vermont towns use the internet more effectively to advance a wide variety of local needs including downtown marketing, community engagement, economic development, school innovation, job creation, health and social services, and e-commerce. It marks the first such effort in Vermont’s history.
The new e-Vermont Partnership is encouraging communities to apply quickly as it selects the first 12 communities to work with. This comprehensive approach will help our towns fully realize the potential of the digital age.
The Project is supported by a just announced $2.5 million Stimulus Grant from the federal Agency of Commerce. Additional support comes from Vermont philanthropists and corporate associates.
This project is not adding fiber optic cable or making other infrastructure improvements. It is focused on helping local e-teams develop innovative uses for the internet to address the needs listed above.
Learn the details of this story and the impact this e-Partnership will have as it works to strengthen our communities and economy.
Ghost of Midnight is an online journal about fostering community within neighborhoods, with a special focus on Front Porch Forum (FPF). My wife, Valerie, and I founded FPF in 2006... read more