http://www.j-lab.org J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism en-us http://www.j-lab.org/jlabrss.gif http://www.j-lab.org 90 52 http://www.newmediawomen.org/site/j_lab_announces_winners_in_first Three entrepreneurial news ideas each won $10,000 in a competition that forecast the kinds of fresh and intriguing ideas women have for the future of news. The three ideas, proposed by four women affiliated with traditional news organizations, were selected from 190 proposals received in only nine weeks as part of the McCormick Foundation New Media Women Entrepreneurs initiative. Project leaders will blog about their experience at www.newmediawomen.org. The winners are: Echo, a system of public storytelling installations in Atlanta, led by Lila King and Karyn Lu, movers behind CNN's user-generated site iReport.com. Latina Voices, a news site for and by Latinas, led by Teresa Puente, a journalism professor at Columbia College Chicago and member of the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board. Northwest Navy News, a networking site for Puget Sound's military community, led by Elaine Helm Norton, new media editor at The Daily Herald in Everett, Wash., and a former military beat reporter. http://www.kcnn.org/modules/twitter_tips/ Twitter has finally hit its stride as a leading tool for finding and sharing timely information from all sorts of places and sources. Its usefulness for breaking news is obvious. However, Twitter is equally useful for tracking ongoing stories and issues, getting fast answers or feedback, finding sources, building community, collaborating on coverage, and discovering emerging issues or trends. Learn how to sign up, log on and start posting "tweets" to enhance your hyperlocal coverage. http://www.kcnn.org/resources/journalism_20_copies For every copy of "Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive" you order at the standard rate of $12, we'll double your shipment. So if you want two copies, pay for one. If you want 50 copies, pay for 25. http://www.j-lab.org/guidelines.shtml Calling all journalism innovators and citizen media makers: There are only a few days left to get your entries in for the 2008 Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism and to have a shot at $16,000 in cash awards. We are looking for the most interactive, engaging news and information projects over the past year. All entries will go into the same pool, competing for the $10,000 Grand Prize and $5,000 in Wild Card and Special Distinction Awards. There is also a special $1,000 award for citizen media projects that have done something exciting or high-impact in their communities with citizen participation or user-generated content (these CitMedia projects will still be eligible for the grand prize and other awards). The deadline is Wednesday, June 11, and the entry fee is $40. Find out more at www.j-lab.org, and please pass this information along to anyone you know who might be interested. http://www.j-newvoices.org/site/story/nv08_release/ Ten new ideas for amplifying community news were selected from a record 312 applicants to receive up to $17,000 in New Voices grants from J-Lab. Winners will launch news sites that will focus on special-interest communities as well as geographic locales. One grantee will create a new model for regional news coverage in Ohio and Indiana. Others will start news and social networking sites for war veterans, families of prisoners, aviation buffs, immigrant and Native American communities and the eco-conscious. "These winners want to build new avenues for producing local news and new ways to invite citizens to share particular expertise." --Jan Schaffer, J-Lab Executive Director. See more at www.J-NewVoices.org. http://www.j-lab.org/batten.shtml Deadline: Wednesday, June 11, 2008. Rewarding innovative ideas, large and small ­ multimedia advances, new participatory journalism ideas or novel ways to engage audiences in important issues. "Big-J" and "Small-J" ideas encouraged. Grand Prize is $10,000; $5,000 in Special Distinction and Wild Card Awards; $1,000 Citizen Media Award. Entry fee: $40. Learn more at www.J-Lab.org. http://www.kcnn.org/legal_risk/comments/legal_risk_blog/ New on the Knight Citizen News Network, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism Associate Professor Geanne Rosenberg has created a Q&A blog where citizen media makers can get their legal questions answered by national media law experts. It's part of the learning module, Top Ten Rules For Limiting Legal Risk. Check it out at www.KCNN.org. http://www.j-lab.org/ruhl_lecture_08.shtml J-Lab Director Jan Schaffer was the speaker at the 2008 Ruhl Lecture on May 8 at the University of Oregon in Eugene. The transcript of her speech, "Participatory Media: Challenges to the Conventions of Journalism," is now available on J-Lab's Web site. "The new media ecosystem that is emerging all around us ... [is] populated by many newcomers ­ news aggregators, bloggers, videographers, nonprofit reporters, and hyperlocal citizen media makers, to name just a few. It's important to understand that these media newcomers use media not so much as an act of journalism, but as an act of political or civic participation. Yet, an increasing amount of what they produce carries a lot of journalistic DNA." Read more at www.J-Lab.org. http://www.j-lab.org J-Lab will be producing two workshops at trade conventions in Chicago this summer. On July 25 at UNITY, J-Lab will produce a 3-4:30 p.m. panel titled, "Citizen Media: Entrepreneurial Ventures Plug Gaps in Local News." Ordinary readers and viewers are contributing photos, video and their own forms of citizen media to the news and information landscape. From placeblogs to hyperlocal Web sites, these ventures are supplementing breaking news, filling voids in local news, and delivering a new competition to mainstream media. On August 8 at AEJMC, J-Lab will produce a 12:15-1:30 p.m. luncheon, "Networked Journalism: The Changing Face of News," at the annual Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Convention. From crowdsourcing to user-generated content, community news sites to nonprofit news, former news consumers are now actively committing random (and not so random) acts of journalism. How should newsrooms and classrooms prepare future journalists for participating in community news and information networks? Read more about both of these events and find out how to register at www.J-Lab.org. http://www.newmediawomen.org/site/creative_new_media_women_10000_for_projects/ A unique initiative addressing opportunity and innovation, recruitment and retention for women in journalism by spotlighting their ingenuity and entrepreneurial abilities. Pilot projects will show what can be done. Research will tell us what more to do. And an awards program and summit will showcase women's creative ideas. NMWE will fund three women-led start-ups that will generate fresh news and information ideas and model a spirit of journalistic entrepreneurship. Winners will be given $10,000 to launch their ideas and blog about the process over the next year. Deadline: May 1, 2008. Learn more at www.NMWE.org. http://www.j-lab.org/guidelines.shtml Rewarding innovative ideas, large and small ­ multimedia advances, new participatory journalism ideas or novel ways to engage audiences in important issues. "Big-J" and "Small-J" ideas encouraged. Grand Prize is $10,000; $5,000 in Special Distinction and Wild Card Awards; $1,000 Citizen Media Award. New this year: Apply online! Coming soon. http://www.kcnn.org/modules/ Have an idea for a module you'd like the Knight Citizen News Network to build? Have a module idea you'd like to build? Tell us about it. J-Lab is commissioning interactive modules to help citizen journalists. http://www.kcnn.org/resources/things_we_like/ New on the Knight Citizen News Network: Eleven new Things We Like. From the best in hyperlocal coverage to networks of blogs and metropolitan sites, these projects offer something unique in the sea of citizen media sites. Especially worth noting are epodunk's "American Diaspora" map that used forum postings to track people moving from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, as well as the RVAMoblog, a site in Richmond, Va., featuring an easy-to-use system that allows users to submit pictures directly from their cell phones. http://www.kcnn.org/legal_risk If you're running a citizen media site or contributing to one, these 10 rules will help you avoid potential legal piftalls. Get advice in videos from Harvard Berkman Center experts and Media Law Resource Center attorneys. Module produced by Geanne Rosenberg, associate professor at City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism and Baruch College. See the module at http://www.kcnn.org/legal_risk/. http://www.j-lab.org/coolstuff.shtml To follow two of the hottest topics in the news, J-Lab has added two new sections to "Cool Stuff": Environmental Issues and 2008 Election Coverage. In the Environment section (http://www.j-lab.org/cool_enviro.shtml), play PublicRadio.org's Consumer Consequences game to see how your lifestyle affects the environment and check out WWF's Climate Witness feature to see what is happening around the world as a result of global warming. In the 2008 Elections section (http://www.j-lab.org/cool_elec08.shtml), compare the candidates' policies to fight international poverty and AIDS in ONE Vote '08's video feature, or compare each candidates' religious background and stances on "values" issues in News21's One Vote Under God feature. http://www.kcnn.org/legal_risk If you're running a citizen media site or contributing to one, these 10 rules will help you avoid potential legal piftalls. Get advice in videos from Harvard Berkman Center experts and Media Law Resource Center attorneys. Module produced by Geanne Rosenberg, associate professor at City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism and Baruch College. See the module at http://www.kcnn.org/legal_risk/. http://www.j-newvoices.org/site/story/apply_now_funding_to_start/ Ten projects will receive up to $17,000 in start-up funding for participatory news ventures. Eligible to receive funding are 501(c)3 organizations and education institutions, including civic groups, community organizations, public broadcasters, schools, colleges and universities, and individuals working under the sponsorship of a nonprofit fiscal agent. Especially seeking at least 3 proposals from former Knight newspaper communities. See the new guidelines for 2008 by visiting http://www.j-newvoices.org/index.php/site/story/2008rfp/ and fill out an online application at http://www.j-newvoices.org/site/story/online_application/. http://www.kcnn.org/citmedia_sites/ Do you run a citizen media site or have some favorites that you frequent? Fill out a short survey to get them listed on the Knight Citizen News Network's Citizen Media Sites Map. View the Citizen Media Sites map at http://www.kcnn.org/citmedia_sites/ and fill out the Survey Monkey survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Q3cWJp9oItpEwTUGgbhLrw_3d_3d. http://www.j-lab.org/random_acts.shtml From the Winter 2007 issue of Harvard's Nieman Reports, J-Lab's Jan Schaffer tells how hyperlocal citizen news sites are emerging as new forms of civic media. "In communities with little news coverage, people are using the Web to restore a sense of place," she wrote. http://www.j-newvoices.org/index.php/site/story/2007_grantee_updates/ Six months after receiving funding, the first glimpse at the progress of the 2007 crop of New Voices grantees is now available. Several projects have already gone live with Web sites while some are on track with scheduled launches. See what has worked for the projects and what road blocks they've hit: visit www.J-NewVoices.org. http://www.j-newvoices.org/index.php/site/story/2006_grantee_updates/ One year after initially receiving funding under J-Lab's New Voices grant, the 2006 grantee class has reported their progress to J-Lab. The latest updates are now available on www.J-NewVoices.org. http://www.j-lab.org/communitys_info-structure.shtml J-Lab Director Jan Schaffer wrote this article for the Newspaper Association of America, posted Nov. 13, 2007, on NAA's Future of Newspapers blog. In it, she writes: "News organizations need to construct the hub that will enable ordinary people with passions and expertise to commit acts of news and information." "Ultimately, the marketplace will decide what is news. News will be whatever adds value in a noisy information landscape, whatever helps people get their jobs done, whatever imparts wisdom, and whatever elicits gratitude." Read more at www.j-lab.org. http://www.changesummit.com/events/power-to-change-summit-07/program ChangeSummit.com has posted audio of all the panels from the "Power to Change" event that was held in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 24, 2007 by UPI. Scroll down to The Power of Journalism panel and click the red "Audio" link to hear comments from the panel that included J-Lab Director Jan Schaffer, as well as Gannett's Jennifer Carroll, ABC News' Michael Clemente, McClatchy's John Walcott, the Project for Excellence in Journalism's Tom Rosenstiel and more. http://www.kcnn.org/news/#professor_pokes_holes_in From MEDIASHIFT, Nov. 11, 2007 -- Clyde Bentley guest blogs for Mark Glaser on MEDIASHIFT and discusses what makes his position and curriculum at the Missouri School of Journalism "one of the very few practical courses" in journalism. Bentley launched MyMissourian.com, a community site staffed by students, in 2004. To teach the students a sense of community, the Mizzou curriculum requires students to take a 50-stop community tour. http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/11/back_to_schoolteaching_citizen.html http://www.j-lab.org/spj07notes.shtml Check out highlights from J-Lab's half-day workshop at the 2007 SPJ Convention in Washington, D.C., held on October 4. Panelists included educational, independent and mainstream citizen media site operators: Barb Iverson from Columbia College Chicago's CreatingCommunityConnections.org; Clyde Bentley from the University of Missouri's MyMissourian.com; Rob Goodspeed of RethinkCollegePark.net, DCist.com and ArborUpdate.com; Geoff Dougherty from Knight News Challenge grantee ChiTownDailyNews.org; and Rob Curley, Vice President for Product Development at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, which just launched LoudounExtra.com. http://www.j-newvoices.org/index.php/site/story/2005_grantee_updates/ Two years after initially receiving funding under J-Lab's New Voices grant, the 2005 grantee class has filed their final reports, now available on www.J-NewVoices.org. http://www.j-newvoices.org/index.php/site/story/2008rfp/ New Voices is a pioneering program to seed innovative community news start-ups in the United States. Ten projects will receive funding in 2008. Each project may receive as much as $17,000. Especially seeking at least three proposals from former Knight newspaper communities. New this year: Apply online! Applications will be available late November at www.j-newvoices.org. http://www.kcnn.org/resources/things_we_like/ J-Lab is now on MySpace, Facebook and Flickr. Check out our conference videos posted at our MySpace page: www.myspace.com/jlabi4ij. Join our network of friends on Facebook: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=613513712. Check out our conference and workshop photos on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/j-lab. http://www.kcnn.org/resources/things_we_like/ The Knight Citizen News Network spotlights seven more "Things We Like" in citizen media, including projects from Chicago, Cleveland, Portland, Delaware, Colorado and Alaska. Check out the full list of Things We Like at www.kcnn.org. http://www.j-lab.org/staff.shtml J-Lab is pleased to announce that Julie Drizin has joined us as Assistant Director. Julie comes to J-Lab from the world of public radio, where she produced award-winning news and public affairs programs on the local and national level, including Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now! and NPR's Justice Talking. This year she served as a judge in the Public Radio Talent Quest, an online competition to bring new voices to the airwaves. Kira Wisniewski joined J-Lab as Project Manager in September. Kira received her undergraduate degree at the University of Miami in Coral Gables in 2006. In Miami she completed an internship at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and served as General Manager her senior year at WVUM 90.5 FM, the student-run radio station at UM. She freelance writes for various music publications. http://www.j-lab.org/apme07notes.shtml Now available on J-Lab.org: Highlights from J-Lab's Citizen Media Summit at the Associated Press Managing Editors Conference, which was held October 2 at the J.W. Marriott in Washington, D.C. Get the scoop on CitMedia projects from universities, individual entrepreneurs and mainstream media outlets. See an inside look at The Washington Post's LoudounExtra.com from Rob Curley. Check out Lou Ferrara's description of AP's "Now Public" initiative. And see what Founder Mark Potts took away from the failed Backfence.com network of sites. http://www.kcnn.org/resources/journalism_20_copies We can now accept credit card charges for purchases of Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive, A digital Literacy guide to the information age ($10 per copy, includes domestic shipping). The book was written for J-Lab and the Knight Citizen News Network by Mark Briggs, assistant managing editor for interactive news at The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash. "[Briggs] does a great job of quickly explaining how it all works in the big picture, but also giving you step-by-step instructions. We're giving copies to everyone on the copy desk today." -- Julie Shirley, Executive Editor, Bellingham Herald. http://www.j-newvoices.org/index.php/site/story/citizens_media_summit_iii_agenda We are accepting registrations through the weekend for the third annual Citizens Media Summit, in conjunction this year with the Associated Press Managing Editors Conference at the J.W. Marriott in Washington, D.C. This one-day workshop on Tuesday, Oct. 2, will feature presentations from pro and independent citizen media ventures, a post-mortem on Backfence.com from Founder Mark Potts, and an inside look at the strategy behind washingtonpost.com's LoudounExtra.com from WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive Vice President of Product Development Rob Curley. http://www.kcnn.org/resources/ijnets_10_steps/ The International Center for Journalists and IJNet.org created this interactive training module as a basic introduction to hyperlocal news sites and blogs. "We all have news and stories to tell. But the Internet lets us tell our stories to the world. If you want to tell something important to others, this guide will help you." Read more at IJNet.org. You will need the Adobe Flash player to view the module. http://www.j-lab.org/ba07release_9-17.shtml Data-rich, nonpartisan group blog that covers real-time, online activity of the 2008 presidential candidates ­ and chronicles online content from voters who will elect them, is this year's $10,000 Grand Prize winner in the Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism. This year's other winners are:  $2,000 First Prize: CFR.org Crisis Guides.  $1,000 Wild Card Award: Reuters' Second Life Virtual News Bureau.  $1,000 Citizen Media Award: The Forum, Deerfield, N.H.  $1,000 Special Distinction Award: washingtonpost.com's onBeing.  $1,000 Special Distinction Award: OrlandoSentinel.com's Varsity MyTeam High School Sports. Read more at www.j-lab.org. http://www.j-newvoices.org/index.php/site/story/citizens_media_summit_iii_agenda Ready to start your own community news site? Want to get citizen journalists to write for you? Hear from iBrattleboro to Baristanet, Bakersfield to Backfence. Plus an inside look at the washingtonpost.com's LoudounExtra. A day-long workshop in conjunction with the APME Conference. $90 registration fee, $50 for APME members. Includes lunch. http://www.kcnn.org/tools This six-chapter training module will help site operators and citizen journalists cope with the challenges of covering communities on small budgets with little or no staff. Developed by Wendell Cochran and Amy Eisman,American University School of Communication. Read more and see other training modules at www.kcnn.org. http://www.kcnn.org A digital literacy guide for the information age. Written by Mark Briggs, assistant managing editor for interactive news at The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., this new book offers tips and tutorials on blogging, writing for the Web and capturing photos, video and audio for a story. Briggs stresses simplicity and accessibility, stating, "Can you cut a word in your copy and paste it into a different location to help sentence flow? Then you have what it takes to edit audio and video. Can you send an attachment with an e-mail? Then you have what it takes to publish a blog with pictures." A downloadable PDF version of the book is available at www.kcnn.org. The Web version will be coming shortly. http://www.j-lab.org/guidelines.shtml Apply now! Rewarding innovative ideas, large and small ­ multimedia advances, new participatory journalism ideas or novel ways to engage audiences in important issues. "Big-J" and "Small-J" ideas encouraged, as are works in progress. Grand Prize is $10,000; $5,000 in Special Distinction and Wild Card Awards. New this year: $1,000 Citizen Media Award. New this year: Apply online by e-mailing your applications to awards@j-lab.org and paying the entry fee by credit card. Visit www.j-lab.org/guidelines.shtml for more information. http://www.kcnn.org/mitv/ Offering guides on video, audio and lighting equipment; tutorials on how to shoot and edit video for the Web; information you need to know about copyrights and the creative commons license; how and where to publish your videos online; and how to promote your videos to attract and maintain an audience. The learning module, produced by the Participatory Culture Foundation for the Knight Citizen News Network, can be found at www.kcnn.org. http://www.j-lab.org J-Lab will be producing several events coming up in Washington D.C.: On August 11 at the AEJMC Convention, J-Lab will offer a luncheon presentation, "Citizen Media: Here to Stay or Gone Tomorrow?," at the Renaissance Hotel. The panel will include H2oTown Founder Lisa Williams and NewWest.net Managing Editor Courtney Lowery.On October 2, the third annual Citizens Media Summit will be held in conjunction with the APME conference at the J.W. Marriott hotel. It is an all-day workshop featuring panels and discussions. On October 4, J-Lab will present a morning workshop, "Citizen Media @ SPJ," examining emerging CitMedia models and the successes and challenges of citizen journalism. The workshop will take place at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill Hotel in conjunction with the SPJ conference. To request updates, e-mail news@j-lab.org. http://www.j-lab.org/nv2007_release.shtml Ten new ideas for amplifying community news will receive $12,000 New Voices grants from J-Lab to launch news sites for under-covered communities, embed TV reporters in neighborhoods, network regional radio programs, and map the local impact of climate change. The grantees are: Tamarack Productions' Vermont Climate Witness, Reclaim the Media's Northwest Community Radio Network Collaborative Newscast, Saint Paul Neighborhood Network's Saint Paul City Newsdesk, Friends of the Chappaqua Library's New Castle News Forum, Cambridge Community Television's Neighbor to Neighbor, University of Nevada - Reno's Bilingual Interactive Environmental Journalism, Central District Organization's New-News Network, Virginia Commonwealth University's Fulton Hill Interactive Portal, Pratt Center for Community Development's Building Blocks, and Access SF's News Desk. More information is available at www.J-NewVoices.org. http://www.j-lab.org J-Lab's third annual Citizens Media Summit will be held in conjunction with the APME Conference at the J.W. Marriott in Washington, D.C. To hold a spot or request updateas, e-mail news@j-lab.org. http://www.kcnn.org/about/launched_today_the_knight_citizen_news_network KCNN.org is a free web portal to help both citizens and journalists create and responsibly operate community news sites. Its array of learning and resource modules were created by a network of participants. Check out the unique database of citmedia sites, searchable by keyword or location and displayed on a Google map; the "Things We Like" feature, with 20+ cool ideas; interactive Principles of Citizen Journalism with more than 40 audio and video interviews and resources; latest citizen media research; mini case studies on how to train citizen journalists; resources to jumpstart reporting. www.kcnn.org http://www.j-lab.org/guidelines.shtml Apply now! Rewarding innovative ideas, large and small ­ multimedia advances, new participatory journalism ideas or novel ways to engage audiences in important issues. "Big-J" and "Small-J" ideas encouraged. Grand Prize is $10,000; $5,000 in Special Distinction and Wild Card Awards. New this year: $1,000 Citizen Media Award. Also, we now accept e-mailed entries and credit card payments. Visit www.j-lab.org/batten.shtml for more information. http://www.kcnn.org/research/citizen_media_report/ Local news web sites offering user-generated content are securing a valuable place in the media landscape and are likely to continue as important sources of community news. New research, funded by the Ford Foundation. View online, download the PDF, or e-mail news@j-lab.org to request a hard copy. http://www.kcnn.org/research/citizen_media_report/ Local news web sites offering user-generated content are securing a valuable place in the media landscape and are likely to continue as important sources of community news, according to a new research project funded by the Ford Foundation. From the study: "Citizen sites are developing as new forms of bridge media, linking traditional news with forms of civic participation." Rather than delivering finished stories, sites are forming as "fusions of news and schmooze." Sites are lean on readers and revenues, but 73% of survey respondents said their sites were a "success." 51% of respondents said they don't need to make money to keep going. 82% plan to continue "indefinitely." http://www.j-newvoices.org/index.php/site/story/2007rfp/ J-Lab is seeking proposals to start up innovative hyperlocal news projects. Ten nonprofit community news ventures will receive up to $17,000 each. Apply now or forward this to someone who'd like to apply. http://www.j-newvoices.org/index.php/site/story/2006_grantee_updates/ Check out progress reports from the 2006 New Voices grantees eight months after receiving funding. Monroe County Radio Project now runs a 15-minute segment on WHFI-FM three times a week, Route 7 Report has launched its web site and sent its first newsletter to Southeastern Ohio residents, and the Great Lakes Wiki has Michigan State students posting articles as it prepares for a hard launch of the web site. http://www.j-lab.org/cool_googlemaps.shtml South Africa-based organization Muti created News Map, a project that allows users to highlight any area in the world by dragging and zooming the Google Map, then gives you recent headlines relevant to the region. From the Netherlands, MappedUp is a project that shows a world map in dots. The site draws news headlines from a wide array of RSS feeds then displays them when a user mouses over the dot in the area that the story pertains to. The MIT Media Laboratory created Zipcode Decode, which allows visitors to pinpoint their ZIP code -- or anyone else's -- on a map of the United States. http://www.j-lab.org/cool_pubop.shtml Based on the theory by author and The New Yorker staff writer James Surowiecki that a large crowd of people is smarter than just the smartest individuals within it, TWOCrowds tests the masses to see how well people can predict the future. Users can make predictions or view other users' predictions on a wide range of topics from sports to politics. Key words are taken from the entries and used to pull news from Yahoo! and photos from Flickr, which are then presented to users browsing the predictions. http://www.j-lab.org/cool_hist.shtml The Ottawa Citizen had reporter Chris Lackner retrace a path on the Underground Railroad on an adventure that took 93 days. A photographer recorded the journey and Lackner reported in a blog. The Web site also has an interactive journey that lets the user make decisions and experience the trip of escaping from the south to Canada. http://www.j-lab.org/cool_pers.shtml In an effort to show contemporary immigrant experiences in New York City, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum created a Web site that explores the cultural diversity and change of New York's Lower East side through sounds recorded in the area. The user can click on different areas to get information and turn the sound on or off, thus creating a unique "folk song" through the various sounds of the city. http://www.j-lab.org/cool_econ.shtml The Star Tribune created an interactive tour for the opening of the new Minneapolis Library. Audio descriptions, 3-D panoramic images and written stories allow the user to see inside the $125 million building that took five years to construct. http://www.j-lab.org/cool_entertain.shtml The Tri-City Herald created an interactive fair map that helped users plan their visit to the Benton-Franklin Fair in Kennewick, Washington by providing an event listing and interactive map of the fair that included videos from previous years. The Chicago Tribune made an interactive map of one floor of The Field Museum for the 2006 temporary exhibit, Tutankhamen and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs. http://www.j-lab.org/cool_sport.shtml DR in Denmark made 3-D animations of every goal scored in the 2006 World Cup, allowing users to see the goal from multiple angles and even from the perspective of the soccer ball. USAToday.com's Matt Pitzer ranked the top 200 players in fantasy football before the 2006 NFL season and posted them on a clickable list with statistics, player profiles and photos. http://www.j-newvoices.org/index.php/site/story/2007rfp/ J-Lab is seeking proposals to start up innovative hyperlocal news projects. Ten nonprofit community news ventures will receive up to $17,000 each. New this year, New Voices is seeking up to three proposals from former Knight brothers newspaper cities. http://www.j-lab.org/batten.shtml The Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism reward innovative ideas, large and small. Entries can consist of multimedia advances, new participatory journalism ideas or novel ways to engage audiences in important issues. "Big-J" and "Small-J" ideas encouraged. Grand Prize is $10,000; $5,000 in Special Distinction and Wild Card Awards. New this year is a $1,000 Citizens Media Award to recognize exemplary work with citizen-created content. http://showofhands.com/jlab Are citizen media initiatives a fad or a sustainable part of the emerging media landscape? J-Lab is surveying the field, creating a baseline of information about who's doing what -- and how they're doing it. We invite all readers of and contributors to community news web sites created by citizen journalists to participate. The survey is located at http://showofhands.com/jlab. Can't respons? Please forward the survey to someone who can. http://www.j-newvoices.org/index.php/site/story/2005rfp/ New Voices -- New guidelines have been posted for the 2007 New Voices grants, seeking proposals to start up innovative citizens media projects. Ten nonprofit community news ventures will receive up to $17,000 each. This year, New Voices is seeking up to three proposals from former Knight brothers newspaper sites. For the new guidelines, to download application forms and to see the 2006 grantees, visit www.J-NewVoices.org. http://www.j-newvoices.org/index.php/site/story/2006_grantee_updates/ New Voices -- This year's grantees are launching their sites and recruiting contributors. Seven of the projects have sites up at least in the pre-launch stages: Appalshop's Community Correspondent Corps, San Francisco State University's Ethnic News Service, Columbia College in Chicago's Creating Community Connections, Temple University's MURL Building Blocks, the Pew Partnership for Civic Change's Learning to Finish, Ohio University's Route 7 Report, and Michigan State University's Great Lakes Wiki. West Virginia University's Monroe County Radio Project is already airing 10-minute radio news programs three times a week. Check out full progress reports at www.J-NewVoices.org. http://showofhands.com/jlab Are you a reader of or a contributor to a community news web site created by citizen journalists? J-Lab would like to hear about how you do it and how you use the site. Tell us how your site started, what you cover, and what impact you're having on your community, see instant results to key survey questions at the end of the survey, and get listed in J-Lab's citizen journalism directory. The full report, funded by a Ford Foundation research grant, will be published soon. The survey is located at http://showofhands.com/jlab. Can't respond? Please forward it to someone who can. http://www.j-newvoices.org/index.php/site/story_grantees06/learning_to_finish_solution_that_leads_to_graduation/ The Pew Partnership for Civic Change, a 2006 New Voices grantee, this week launches its "Learning to Finish" campaign and wiki, aimed at reducing high school dropout rates. Starting in Jacksonville, FL and Shreveport, LA, the campaign is to grow to 25 communities by 2008. The wiki, funded by the grant, invites communities to share solutions. You can visit the wiki at http://www.learningtofinish.org/doku.php. http://www.j-lab.org/cms2main.shtml Highlights from the 2006 Citizens Media Summit, held in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 5 in conjunction with the ONA Conference, are now available on J-Lab.org. See what new start-ups, solo journalists and citizen media veterans had to say during this one-day workshop. Also see the newly-released highlights of a Ford-funded national study on citizen media sites, including early findings after interviews with 31 project leaders. http://www.j-learning.org/briggs_blog J-Learning -- Follow the live draft of "Journalism 2.0: How to survive and thrive in the digital age," a book by TheNewsTribune.com Editor Mark Briggs that will teach journalists the skills they need to do better journalism with the help of digital technology. Comments and input on the project are welcomed and encouraged. http://www.j-lab.org/ba06albertospeech.shtml John S. and James L. Knight Foundation President and CEO Alberto Ibarguen delivered the keynote speech at the 2006 Knight-Batten Symposium and Awards for Innovations in Journalism hosted by J-Lab at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 18, 2006. In his speech, Ibarguen announced the Knight Brothers 21st Century News Challenge, an open contest in which the foundation will spend up to $25 million over the next five years to fund new innovative online news projects. http://www.j-lab.org/ba06winnersrelease.shtml Sept. 18, 2006 -- Global Voices Online, a project of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, won the Grand Prize with its blog aggregator that uses skilled multilingual editors to find and publish thoughtful or entertaining bloggers from more than 130 countries. Six other innovative efforts won $1,000 awards. Contact: Jan Schaffer, 301-985-4020. http://www.j-lab.org/ba06umdbuilding_pr.shtml Sept. 18, 2006 -- The Knight Foundation has given J-Lab $1.4 million to renew the New Voices program; create the Knight Citizen News Network, a self-help training portal for citizen journalists; and add a citizen media award to the annual Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism. The grant is part of a $4.4 million gift to the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Contact Jan Schaffer, 301-985-4020.