Idea Lab

As Newspapers Implode, Diverse Voices Move Online

by Dori J. Maynard
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

In a few weeks the American Society of Newspaper Editors will release its annual census. The census, created to capture an accurate picture of the industry's diversity, will also tell us how many jobs were lost in this year of layoffs, buy-outs and shuttered newspapers. As newspaper companies struggle with advertisers and audiences continuing to migrate to the web, the horrifying and at times mind-numbing rate at which the industry appeared to be imploding has take the question of diversity virtually off the table. As one newspaper CEO said to me a while back, "Diversity isn't only off the front-burner,...

• April 1, 2009
• 4 comments

The Includer
Episode 10
Our Good Idea

by Andrius Kulikauskas
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

The Includer grows wings.  An idea can't fly on a single wing or even two or three.  An idea soars when inspired from every angle.  Just as a gangster's heart can't shut out love from all directions.  Who among us can take credit for a miracle?  It's the logic of the Glory of a greater Inspirer.I was disappointed that I didn't submit proposals to the HASTAC or Google calls for projects.  I was simply overwhelmed with my new job, teaching algebra at the American University in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  I am delighted to learn that Ricardo championed the Includer with...

• November 14, 2008
• No comments

The Includer
Episode 8
People Vs. Ideas

by Andrius Kulikauskas
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

Open culture is the interplay of open people rather than open ideas. I proposed an idea, but actually, I proposed to bring it to life. I and my team didn’t win funding to build Includers. Instead, I won the chance to blog about them at the PBS Idealab website. But what is the point of blogging about a one-year-old idea? My challenge is to link together those who care and bring to life something new. The challenge I bring to the Knight Foundation is to call for knights - for champions - for includers, rather than for ideas like the Includer.

• November 1, 2008
• 5 comments

South African Seniors Speak: Age Demands Action

by David Sasaki
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

Originally published on Rising Voices. Which group is most affected by today's digital divide? The poor? Those who live in rural communities? The so-called Global South? Women? To a greater or lesser degree, they have all tended to benefit less from the advantages and opportunities afforded by the internet than, say, young men living in urban North America, Western Europe, and East Asia. But there is another demographic whose online exclusion trumps all others: the aged. According to a study by Jonathan Gardner and Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick, "almost three in five of the 18 to 24...

• September 29, 2008
• 1 comment