Tell

 us  about  the  opportunity  presented  by  your  idea/project,  what  it  will  
transform,  and  the  impact  it  will  have.  
During  a  six-­‐month  period,  NewsCloud  will  sequentially  launch  two  different  social  
media  publications  on  Facebook,  each  with  a  distinct  strategic  approach  to  
promoting  participation,  community  and  awareness  with  young  people  using  
social  networks.  

In  parallel,  the  University  of  Minnesota  Institute  for  New  Media  Studies  and  
Learning  Technologies  will  study  the  results  and  impact  of  each  particular  strategy  
and  publication.  

At  the  end  of  the  project,  UMN  will  publish  qualitative  and  quantitative  research  
from  the  study  with  the  goal  of  documenting  strategies  that  work  best  to  engage  
youth  in  new  media  in  social  networking  environments.  

The  first  publication  will  be  topic-­‐based,  an  Obama  Campaign  News  Site  for  the  
2008  Election  filtered  by  age  groups.    

The  second  will  use  demographic  and  geographic  targeting  for  a  publication  tailored  
for  college  students  in  the  Minnesota  region.  

If  successful,  a  secondary  phase  of  study  will  examine  two  to  three  additional  
publications.    

How  will  it  create  lasting,  visible  change?  

The  goal  of  this  project  is  to  learn  what  works  (and  what  doesn’t)  in  engaging  
younger  people  using  social  networks  in  new  media.  

Questions  that  guide  our  investigation  include:  

 
• What  gets  younger  Facebook  members  engaged  (or  not)  in  social  media?    

• What  does  this  engagement  look  like?    

For  instance,  do  members  both  consume  these  news  sources  and  produce  related  
content:  talking  about,  with,  and  through  these  publications  to  each  other?  What  
impact  do  they  see  these  non-­‐traditional  news  sources  having  on  their  lives?  

• How  does  the  user’s  engagement  with  these  publications  contribute  to  the  
mission  of  the  affiliated  organization  (e.g.,  Obama  campaign  or  college  
mission)?  

Our  goal  is  to  publish  our  findings,  thereby  contributing  to  the  knowledge  base  
about  what  works  with  independent  media,  as  well  as  use  these  data  to  improve  
design  and  user  experience.  

 
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Tell  us  how  you  identified  this  opportunity  and  why  the  time  is  right  for  it.  
The  focus  on  Facebook  and  youth  engagement  arose  from  the  open  source  
NewsCloudFacebook  framework,  discussions  with  Gary  Kebbel  and  Dianne  Lynch.    

What  other  partners  or  funders  are  involved  in  your  idea/project?  
We  will  aggressively  recruit  content  and  mission-­‐related  partners  to  co-­‐promote  
and  nurture  each  publication.    

How  will  you  measure  success?  

We  will  measure  success  by  the  quantitative  and  qualitative  growth  of  each  
publication’s  community,  in  turndirectly  impacting  the  quality  of  the  research.  

How  are  you  uniquely  qualified  to  implement  your  idea/project?  

Jeff  Reifman  solely  developed  the  NewsCloud  platform  and  Web  site.  He  has  also  
developed  Facebook  applications  for  NewsCloud,  BC  Hydro  and  Genome  Alberta.  As  
Group  Program  Manager  at  Microsoft,  Jeff  helped  launch  MSN  News  and  MSNBC.com  
in  1995-­‐6.  In  2001,  Jeff  founded  ActionStudio.org,  later  received  funding  from  The  
Omidyar  Foundation  and  was  acquired  by  Groundspring.  In  2004,  Jeff  wrote  three  
cover  stories  for  the  Seattle  Weekly  on  Microsoft  and  Social  Investing.  

Dr.  Christine  Greenhow  has  over  a  decade  of  experience  in  studying  emerging  
Internet-­‐based  technologies  in  formal  and  informal  online  learning  environments.    
She  graduated  with  her  doctorate  from  Harvard  University  where  she  was  a  Larsen  
Fellow  and  has  served  as  principal  or  co-­‐principal  investigator  on  numerous  
externally  funded  research  and  development  projects.    She  has  published  twelve  
single  and  co-­‐authored  publications  and  presented  extensively  on  young  people’s  
use  of  Web  2.0  technologies.  With  interests  that  span  education,  communications,  
and  new  media,  her  recent  work  looks  at  communication,  community-­‐building,  and  
21st  century  learning  in  online  youth  networks.    Her  research  on  the  educational  
benefits  of  social  network  sites  has  been  featured  in  national  and  international  news  
media.    

Please  describe  organizational  and  financial  capacity  to  implement  your  project  
including  any  business  plan.  
The  project  technology  will  be  built  based  on  existing  code  from  the  
NewsCloudFacebook  application.  

We’ll  apply  the  following  approaches  for  marketing  each  publication:  

• Targeted  demographic  advertising  on  Facebook  to  supporters  of  

BarackObama  et  al.  
• Working  with  partners  to  co-­‐promote  to  their  membership  or  audience  
• Viral  features  of  the  application  on  Facebook  
• General  PR  effort  et  al.  

 
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Cost  for  the  project  including  technical  and  operational  costs  and  academic  research  
is  estimated  at  $228,374.  

How  will  your  idea/project  be  sustained  beyond  Knight  Foundation’s  funding?  
While  the  primary  purpose  of  this  project  is  research,  if  the  publications  are  
successful,  we  will  continue  to  operate  them  as  part  of  the  NewsCloud  community  or  
with  our  partners.  

The  research  may  suggest  subsequent  steps  or  additional  research  in  which  these  
communities  may  be  migrated  into  new  efforts.  Therefore,  it  may  make  sense  to  
continue  studying  these  publications  with  a  future  grant.  

 
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