NewsCloud 2008 Grant Full Application

8/9/2019 NewsCloud 2008 Grant Full Application

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JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION

JOURNALISM INITIATIVES GRANT PROPOSAL

Thank you for taking the time to complete this proposal. You will see it asks for information that

is both legally required and satisfies Knight Foundation policy. We want the proposal to be

helpful both to you and the foundation. We welcome questions or concerns.

Organization/institution legal name: NewsCloud

Other or previous operating name (aka/dba):

Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN):

Address:

City: Seattle

State and ZIP: Washington 98103

County: King

Telephone: Fax:

E-mail:[email protected]

Web site: http://www.newscloud.com

Name and title of CEO (Mr., Ms., Dr.): Mr.

Name and title of primary contact, if different than CEO:

Jeffrey B. Reifman, Founder

Primary contacts e-mail:[email protected]

Primary contacts telephone:

Will you be using afiscal agent? Yes No (if no, please continue to page 2)

Fiscal Agent organization name: Tides Center via Knight Foundation

Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN):

Contact name at fiscal agent:

Address:

City:State and ZIP:

Telephone: Fax:

E-mail:


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Purpose of grant (pleaseuse one sentence and no more than two lines):

To launch two social media publications on Facebook with various strategic approaches for engaging youth and to subsequently study

what works (and what doesnt) in building community and creating impact.

Total cost of project (from all sources): $: 249,529

Requested amount from Knight Foundation: $249,529

Over how many years? 1, (note: phase one of this project is budgeted for six months only)

Organizations annual operating budget: $0

Number of employees: 1

Organizations background, mission and history (use no more than two paragraphs):

NewsCloud is an open source social media community offering readers the opportunity to share and discuss important stories from

around the Web. In this age of intense media consolidation, NewsCloud offers an independently operated platform for diverse

community participation and growth. NewsClouds long-term goals include raising the quality level of participation and commentary

online by supporting the growth of more sophisticated news communities. Examples of these ideas include our experimental member

scoring system, comment ratings, topic clouds and storylines.

NewsCloud was founded by Microsoft and MSNBC.com veteran Jeff Reifman. Originally launched as CommonTimes.org, the site

was branded NewsCloud.com in mid-2006. In October 2006, NewsCloud broke the story to the Web and mainstream media regarding

the copyright dispute between YouTube and Viacom. NewsCloud was a finalist in the 2006 Knight Foundation Citizen Journalism

contest.

Journalism Initiatives Program Area Served: please check all that apply

Press Freedom and Freedom of Information

Journalism Training and Education Electronic and New Media

News and Newsroom Diversity News in the Public Interest

Other Journalism (please describe): Citizen Editorial and Citizen Journalism


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JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION

JOURNALISM PROPOSAL NARRATIVE

Your proposal will be considered based on information you provide in this document. What you tell us here will

be used to set our baseline expectations for the project. Please limit your answers to the space provided.

1. Need: What journalistic or public need will the proposed project address? How was the need identified?

This project is intended to address the knowledge gap of best practices in getting young people engaged in news and current eventsonline and generating subsequent real world impact. The project targets the Facebook social network because it has 90 million activemembers, is the most-trafficked social media site in the world according (comScore) and has an 85 percent market share of 4-yearU.S. universities.

The focus on Facebook and youth engagement arose from the open source NewsCloud Facebook framework & discussions with GaryKebbel and Dianne Lynch.

2. Proposed Project: Briefly summarize the project for which Knight Foundation funding is requested.Relate the project to the needs identified above.

During a six-month period, NewsCloud will sequentially launch two different social media publications on Facebook, each with adistinct 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 impactof 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 documentingstrategies that work best to engage youth in new media in social networking environments.

The first publication will be a Climate Change site, which uses a street team incentive system to promote and encourageparticipation in the community. Members will receive points when they post stories, rate materials and participate in discussions. Theycan accumulate points over time and redeem them for small prizes.

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.


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3. Project Activities and Timetable: Please list the most important project activities and provide atimetable showing when you will do them. (Example: To produce apples, starting on March 1, wewill plant 100 saplings.)

Development Schedule

Month 1 - 2 Begin recruiting partners Hire software developers, outreach/marketing staff and design contractor Work with UMN research team to define application requirements and outreach strategy Develop Climate Change publication from NewsCloud Facebook application code and street team specific features Launch Climate Change publication, including marketing/PR efforts (towards end of Month 2) Begin development of College News publication Begin recruiting partners for College News publication

Month 3 4 Launch College News publication Ongoing feature development, bug fixing, support for each publication Continue marketing and PR efforts for each publication Support UMN researchers with their study work Begin discussions with Knight Foundation for Phase Two funding

Month 5-6 Ongoing feature development, bug fixing, support for each publication Continue marketing and PR efforts for each publication Solidify open source components and documentation of Facebook publication applications Prepare technology post-mortem for Phase One Support UMN researchers with their study work Begin design and specification for Phase Two publications

Research Schedule

Months 1-3 Refine and agree on research questions Develop valid survey instruments, which involve brief lit review to inform valid survey design and getting feedback from

advisory group; pilot testing with small group of college age participants Secure Institutional Review Board approval for work with human subjects (6 week process; process goes much smoother if

subjects are 18 years of age or older!) Set up survey in survey monkey, etc.

Month 4 & 5 Send recruiting email/message to publication users; survey incentive will help get a higher response rate. Recruit for focus groups ($50 incentive) Provide 3 week window for subjects to take the survey weekly reminders Analyze survey data trends/questions to follow-up on in focus groups Do data dump of internal statistical tracking inform focus group questions Conduct focus groups and transcribe data AFTER survey completion & look at site stats Analyze focus group data

Month 6 - 8 Review survey, focus group and internal site-tracking data analysis Write up report for publication on (1) what engages users; (2) what does this engagement look like (3) How did the

publication contribute to the mission of the organization.

4. Anticipated Outcomes:

A. Direct results: Activities create outcomes. Please list what you expect will happen as a result ofyour activities. Tell us how you will substantiate your outcomes. (Example: Within two years, we


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expect 80% of the saplings will have grown into trees. Well snap a picture of them to show you.By the next year, we expect to have our first apple crop. Well count the fruit-producing trees

and the apples harvested.)

We will launch and grow two social media publication communities: The first publication will be a Climate Change site which uses astreet team incentive system to promote and encourage participation in the community. Members will receive points when they poststories, rate materials and participate in discussions. They can accumulate points over time and redeem them for small prizes. Thesecond will use demographic and geographic targeting for a publication tailored for college students in the Minnesota region.

B. Broader impact: Outcomes, in turn, create broader impacts. What larger things may happen as aresult of this project? How will you demonstrate these broader impacts? (Example: In a fewyears, we hope to have an apple agribusiness that will not only be self-sufficient, but will provide

subsidy to our educational center.)

The goal of this project is to learn what works (and what doesnt) 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 thesepublications to each other? What impact do they see these non-traditional news sources having on their lives?

How does the users engagement with these publications contribute to the mission of the affiliated organization (e.g. ClimateChange or college mission)?

To answer such questions merits a mixed methods approach to data collection and analysis; University of Minnesota researchers willcollect quantitative data on user characteristics and interactions with the publication (e.g., frequency, duration, features utilized, andactivities) as well as qualitative data on the users experience and perspectives to produce an accurate and comprehensive account. Ourgoal is to publish these findings, thereby contributing to the knowledge base about what works with independent media, as well as usethese data to improve design and user experience.

Some of the data collection will be automated. Internal Facebook application statistics and requested internal NewsCloud statistical

tracking features will provide data for quantitative analysis and comparison of each community. For example, we can measure andanalyze activity levels in each publication based on reading, link sharing, commentary, blogging/self-publishing, content quality,invitations, virality, et al.

Other data collection will involve surveying and talking to users about their perceptions and experiences. University of Minnesotaresearchers will develop survey instruments to query readers and active members. Focus groups with users and non-users will also beperformed to triangulate survey data and verify trends.

Staging the launch of each publication should provide adequate time for qualitative analysis of the evolution and high/low points ineach community.

The end result will be an academic study on what we learned and suggestions for further areas of research.

5. Assessment and evaluation: Who will evaluate your project? Will the evaluation be done in-house orby an outside consultant and/or a partner in the project? How will it be done?

The University of Minnesota will evaluate the qualitative and quantitative impacts of the social media publications that we build.

Towards the end of the project, we will internally assess the value of our publication communities and quality of our research data todetermine whether additional studies and/or publications should be pursued.

At this time, there is no money budgeted for an outside post-mortem assessment of our project.


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6. Risks: Please be frank about things that might go wrong. Does your organization have the capacity to doall the things you say you will do? Are staff changes on the horizon? Are there outside factors that coulddisrupt the project? What can be done to lessen those risks?

Some development risk is mitigated because the initial project technology will be based on existing code from the NewsCloudFacebook application and NewsCloud Web Services API.

However, were building, launching and studying two publications each with the inherent complexities of design, development,marketing, branding, outreach and support. The relative maturity and activity level in each community will be important to enabling

successful research. One or both community concepts may flop. It will be important to gather data on the users experience with eachpublication early on, especially from those who do not engage to understand why not and what could be improved.

From a technical perspective, we want to run all the publications from one software code base to avoid forking the code and having tomaintain multiple code bases. This is desirable in part because the Facebook platform changes so quickly and in part because itprovides the opportunity to open source a single, feature-complete code base at a future date.

While geared for rapid, stepwise, and focused study, the proposed pacing may be too quick for what were trying to accomplish,challenging the development and marketing effort as well as the researchers. Partner development and dependence on partnershipsmay at time hinder progress.

The street team budget for prizes may be limited depending on the growth of the community. We will need to be successful buildingpartnerships to expand our prize offerings.

This project is not just a static web site but requires an ongoing service and support structure. Publishers (and readers) will havequestions, feature requests, problem reports and we will need to be responsive. The quality of their experience with the application andwith us will influence its success.

7. Marketing: How will you get the message out about your project? Please be specific.

The quality of the research will correlate to the speed with which we can grow each Facebook publication into a viable community.Well apply the following approaches for marketing each publication:

Targeted demographic advertising on Facebook e.g. to younger environmentalists. this is where the primary marketingbudget will be applied. Stronger partnership development will allow us to spend less on marketing.

Working with partners to co-promote to their membership or audience Viral features of the application on Facebook General PR effort and opportunities by NewsCloud and UMN leveraging partners and the Knight Foundation where

appropriate. Guerilla marketing e.g. flyers, tabling, t-shirts and sticker giveaways Leveraging NewsCloud.com members, existing NewsCloud Facebook application members and Jeff Reifmans professional

online network.


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8. Qualifications: Why is your organization particularly qualified to address the identified need?Please place the work you do in context of work done by other organizations.

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 hasserved as principal or co-principal investigator on numerous externally funded research and development projects. She has publishedtwelve single and co-authored publications and presented extensively on young peoples use of Web 2.0 technologies. With intereststhat span education, communications, and new media, her recent work looks at communication, community building, and 21st centurylearning in online youth networks. Her research on the educational benefits of social network sites has been featured in national andinternational news media.

9. Collaboration: How have you collaborated with others in developing this project? How will othersparticipate in its implementation? Please identify project partners and explain the respective role of each.Attach letters indicating support or intent to participate.

Other than the University of Minnesota and Dr. Greenhows collaboration on our project proposal, no other primary partners are

involved at this time. Dr. Greenhow expects to recruit key department team members for help in building an audience for theMinnesota collegiate publication.

Possible Climate Change partners that we will be contacting include Grist Magazine, the Sierra Club, World Changing and 1Sky. Wehave a previous relationship with Grist and have had discussions over the years with World Changing and Sierra Club.

I have informally discussed the project with a design firm, Blue Flavor, in Seattle and a potential software developer who has workedon my earlier Facebook projects, Rick Kowal. I have also worked closely in the past with contract system administrator Todd Weaver.If the project is approved, I will quickly move forward with recruiting for the overall project.

NewsCloud has been successful in the past using email, word of mouth and Facebook and CraigsList ads to find new contract staff.

10. Other Support: Please list all other funding partners. Please specify their exact amounts of support,

and whether funding is pending or committed. Include in-kind contributions as well.Important: Allamounts, including the request to Knight Foundation, should add up to the project cost.

No other funding partners.

11. Sustainability: How will you sustain the project after Knight Foundation funding has ended? Bespecific about revenue sources.

While the primary purpose of this project is research, if the publications are successful, we will continue to operate them as part of theNewsCloud 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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12. Committee analysis: Knights Journalism Advisory Committee requests you analyze your proposal byanswering the following questions briefly and clearly.

A. Does your proposed grant maximize resources? What percentage of your overall budget goes tooverhead? How many dollars will you spend per person participating in your project? What otherevidence of efficiency exists?

The NewsCloud effort has been extremely frugal and efficient. The entire NewsCloud platform has primarily been built by JeffReifman; using occasional contractors or interns when necessary. Less than $25,000 has been spent to date over three years.

NewsCloud does not have office space or administrative staff. Nearly all technology funding for this proposal will be used directly topay for employee salaries for software development, outreach and project management.

B. Does this proposal leverage industry or institutional dollars? If the request comes from a schoolof journalism, is the university as a whole behind the project? Does it contribute money? If therequest proposes to train professional journalists, is there a co-pay of any kind? Is an industrycontribution required? Are application forms used to ask news organizations about their commitmentto training? What other evidence of leveraging exists?

There is no other funding used to support this proposal. We will however leverage the University of Minnesota as a close partner inour research and especially in the collegiate community publication.

C. Whats the extent of Knight Foundations support? If we have funded you over time, is thefoundations support increasing or decreasing as an overall percentage of program costs? If Knightfunds were to go elsewhere, what would happen to the project? What is the capacity of theorganization to raise funds from multiple sources?

The Knight Foundation has not funded NewsCloud in the past.

The Knight Foundation has funded a variety of projects at the University of Minnesota but we do not have details of each.

NewsCloud explored an investment with The New York Times in early 2008 that did not come to fruition. NewsCloud does not havea paid staff position for managing investment opportunities or fund raising. However, NewsCloud is preparing a social investmentdocument to discuss with individuals and foundations interested in media and advocacy and exploring other available grants forrelated work, as time allows.

As the primary purpose of these publications is research, it is not essential that they continue to be supported at the end of the project.However, if successful, they will be integrated into the overall NewsCloud community. If we are successful at bringing partners intothe project, they may also work with us to maintain the communities over time.

D. Does the proposal build leadership in the field? Is your idea bold, new, or catalytic? Does it act inany way to nurture a new generation of leaders? Does it bring groups together into coalitions toadvance or create a common agenda? Please explain.

To date, there have not been any significant social media applications delivered on the Facebook platform. This will be the firstserious research effort to study how to engage youth by targeting topics, demography and geography. It will also be the first streetteam application on Facebook.

Through our marketing and pursuit of partnerships, we have a real opportunity to tap into a reservoir of individuals concerned aboutclimate change and support them in building community online, staying up on current events and looking at virtual and real worldimpacts.


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E. Does the proposal increase the capacity of your organization? Will this grant put the educationalor training institution on a more solid, permanent financial footing? Does it increase anorganizations ability to use new media?

This study will be generally supportive of NewsClouds overall goals:

The study will help us identify features that work at engaging new users, which we will be able to apply to NewsCloud.comand its other platforms.

Increased resources will make the project more sustainable and support the improvement of the underlying architecture for

Facebook and our Web Services API. The resources will also support the development of new features such as the StreetTeam rewards program, enhanced video features, et al.

The opportunity to fund partner relationships will help NewsCloud assess the ability of its technology to support mission-driven organizations.

The Facebook publications should drive increased traffic and activity (both new users, more diverse stories and deeperdiscussions) across the NewsCloud universe of sites.

The relationship with the Knight Foundation and the academic relationship with the University of Minnesota will besupportive of our other fund raising and public relations efforts.

The project should help to position NewsCloud more as a thought leader in the new media community, especially in terms ofsocial networking and Facebook capacity.

Depending on the partners we select, it should support these organizations in building their reach and expertise in new media.

F. Is the project applicable across all media platforms? Are broadcast, new media and magazinejournalists part of the application pool and trainee pool? Are techniques, topics and values taughtacross platforms?

The project media will be available exclusively online on Facebook. We expect that there will be some number of younger journalismstudents using each publication especially given the topics of climate change and our partnership with the University of MinnesotaNew Media Studies.

There are no plans to host this project on the Web or in print.

G. What is the diversity portfolio of your organization? Does your organization have a diversityplan or statement of principles? What are your specific goals when striving to include women and

people of color in your staff and programs? What is the current diversity census listing women andjournalists of color of your program staff and participants? Are you on track to meeting your owngoals? What recruiting techniques are you using? What barriers (institutional, demographic, etc.) doyou encounter in trying to reach your diversity goals, and how are you working to overcome them?

NewsCloud currently consists of founder Jeff Reifman and no additional staff. So, there is no diversity policy in place at this time.However, when hiring we will follow the policies required by Tides Foundation, the fiscal sponsor.

The University of Minnesotas equity and diversity policies are posted onlinehttp://www.academic.umn.edu/equity/mission_units.html.

H. How does your project advance the fundamental values of press freedom, and journalismexcellence? Does it include the context of the importance of news to open, self-governing societies?Does it consider public responsibility of journalists?

We will develop a code of ethics for self-publishing (links, journal entries and comments) in each publication that reflect commonpractices and values of journalism e.g. Kovach and Rosentiel and online communities. Each social media publication will rely onreader submissions and discussions to become vibrant communities so openness and involvement in developing the communitycontent (as well as guidelines) will be very central.


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BUDGET: REVENUES ALLOCATED TO THIS PROPOSAL

You wont need to fill out all the spaces below, only the ones that apply to your proposal. Insert any additional budget items inthe space provided under Other. An explanation of this form appears on the following page. For multi-year proposals, pleasecopy these forms and submit revenue and expense budgets for each year.

Contributed Income

1. Individual contributions $2. Corporate contributions - attach list specifying contributors and amounts contributed

3. Foundation grants (except Knight Foundation) - attach list specifying grantors andamounts granted

4. Government support a) Federal

b) State

c) Local

5. Parent organization support

6. Special events

7. In-kind contributions8. Other specify

Total contributed income $0

Earned Income

9. Fees for services $

10. Admissions

11. Memberships

12. Publications and royalties

13. Contracted services

14. Rentals15. Other (specify)

_________________

_________________

_________________

Total earned income $0

Other Income

16. Investment income $

17. Interest

18. Other (specify)_________________

_________________

_________________

Total other income $0

19. Knight Foundation request $249,529

Total proposal revenues $249,529


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EXPLANATION OF PROPOSAL BUDGET REVENUE LINE ITEMSPlease provide details of all budget revenue items in the required budget narrative that follows on page 14. Identify confirmedand pending sources of income.

Contributed Income1. Individual contributions: contributions by

individuals for, or allocated to, this proposal.2. Corporate contributions: grants, sponsorship

or other income from corporations for, orallocated to, this proposal.

3. Foundation grants (except Knight): grants,sponsorship or other income fromfoundations other than Knight Foundation for, orallocated to, this proposal.

4. Government support:a) Federal: grants or income from all federalsources for, or allocated to, this proposal.b) State: grants or income from all state sourcesfor, or allocated to, this proposal.c) Local: grants or income from all county, city or

municipal sources for, or allocated to, thisproposal.

5. Parent organization support: parent or sponsoringorganization support allocated to this proposal,including cash payment made directly to yourorganization and cash payments made to theproducers of goods or services provided directlyto your organization without cost (e.g.,maintenance, utilities or services provided byparent organization). Support included in thisamount should not be included under in-kindcontributions.

6. Special events: income from fund-raising andother special events for, or allocated to, thisproposal.

7. In-kind contributions: total value of in-kindcontributions of personnel time, goods or servicesspecifically associated with this proposal. Pleaseitemize each category of contribution and thebasis on which it was valued in budget narrative.

8. Other: contributions from others not included inthe above categories. Please identify source.

Earned Income9. Fees for services: fees paid by those benefiting

from the proposal, including tuition for classes,fees for workshops or other educational

programs, and similar items.10. Admissions: revenue derived from sale of

tickets for events for, or allocated to, thisproposal.

11. Memberships: all revenue from memberships inyour organization or associated auxiliaryallocated to this proposal.

12. Publications and royalties: income from sale ofpublications and reproduction rights; royaltiesearned on publications allocated to this proposal.

13. Contracted services: revenue derived from thesale of services allocated to this proposal.

14. Rentals: income from rental of facilities orequipment for, or allocated to, this proposal.

15. Other: any other earned income not included inlines 9-14 that will be allocated to this proposal(e.g., advertising, concessions, gift shop).Please specify income source on budget formand provide additional detail in budgetnarrative.

Other Income16. Investment income: income generated by

endowment and allocated to this proposal.

17. Interest: income generated from interest on non-endowment investments (e.g., savings accounts,certificates of deposit) and allocated to thisproposal.

18. Other: all other sources of revenue for, orallocated to, this proposal not derived fromcontributions, grants and parent organizationsupport. Please specify income source onbudget form and provide additional detail inbudget narrative.

19. Knight Foundation request: amount of supportrequested from Knight Foundation for this

proposal.


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You wont need to fill out all the spaces below. Use only those that apply to your proposal. Insert any additional budgetitems in the space provided under Other. An explanation of this form appears on the following page.

Note: We do not pay administrative salaries, wages or indirect / overhead costs.

You may also attach a proposed budget using your organizations own format. For multi-year proposals, please copy theseforms and submit revenue and expense budgets for each year, as well as summary budgets for the entire proposal. Forcapital proposals please include a detailed proposal budget itemizing all the construction cost and other proposal expenses.

Salaries and wages

20. Program salaries and wages

Title of position No. of People % time onproposal Total

Knight

Foundation

Share

All

non-Knight

Funds

Project Manager/SoftwareArchitect Mr. Reifman

1 80% $34,000 $34,000 $

Software Developer Facebook/NC

1 100% $42,500 $42,500

Software Developer street team 1 33% $12,500 $12,500

Outreach, partner mgmt, comm.mgmt and marketing

1 100% $27,500 $27,500

Customer support, fulfillment 1 75% $15,000 $15,000

Graduate assistant 1 50% $16,985 $16,985

Research Advisory 3


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EXPLANATION OF PROPOSAL BUDGET EXPENSE LINE ITEMS

Please provide details of all budget expense items in the required budget narrative that follows on page 14.

20. Program salaries and wages: payments of salaries andwages to program staff allocated for work directly related tothis proposal. Please indicate position title, number of

people with this title working on the proposal, thepercentage of each persons time devoted to the proposaland the calculated cost of that time.

For example:

Title of position No. ofpeople

% time

onproposal

Total

Director of education

(annual salary $30,000)

1 25% $7,500

21. Program benefits: costs other than wages or salaries

that are attributable to the program employees above, suchas Social Security, health insurance and pensioncontributions, prorated for this proposal. For example: Ifyour organizations benefit package totals 15 % of grosssalaries, the benefit for the Director of Education would be$1,125 (.15 x $7,500).

22. Administrative salaries and wages: payments of salariesand wages for time of non-program staff allocated to thisproposal. (i.e.: director, accounts manager, etc.). Pleaseindicate position title, number of people with this title, thepercentage of each persons time devoted to the proposaland the calculated cost of that time. Knight Foundation

will not pay for these indirect costs, but they may beincluded as part of your total proposal budget in theAll non-Knight funds column.

23. Administrative benefits: costs other than wages orsalaries that are attributable to the non-program employeesabove, such as Social Security, health insurance andpension contributions, prorated for this proposal.

24. Contract services: costs of personnel who are not on thestaff of your organization, but whose services are required inorder to complete the proposal successfully. This couldinclude consultants, teachers, social workers, artists,technicians, advisers and support personnel. Please specifytype of contractor, number of days committed to thisproposal, rate charged per day (or other fee basis) andcalculated total cost.

For example:

25. Travel: transportation and accommodations, per diemand mileage allowances, and lodging expenses or staff andcontract personnel associated with the proposal. Please

explain basis for cost calculations in budget narrative.26. Supplies and materials: costs of proposal materials,

supplies and other consumables, equipment rentals andpurchases of equipment valued at less than $1,000 peritem.

27. Rent/utilities/insurance: costs of space rental, heat,electricity, telephone and insurance whether directly relatedor allocated to this proposal. Please provide detail in budgetnarrative, indicating which are allocated and which are directcosts.

28. Postage and shipping: postage, shipping and

transportation costs such as trucking and hauling related tothis proposal.

29. Marketing: all costs for marketing/promotion such asmarket research; campaign and materials development,design and production; advertising space or time; printingand mailing of brochures, flyers and posters; and otherpromotion and publicity activities related to this proposal. Donot include payments to individuals that belong under"Salaries and wages."

30. Fund raising: all costs associated with fund-raisingactivities for this proposal, including materials development,design and production. Do not include payments to

individuals that belong under Salaries and wages.31. Capital expenses: expenses for purchases of facilities,vehicles and equipment; renovations or improvementsinvolving structural changes; and other capital expendituresdirectly associated with this proposal.Applications forsupport of capital proposals should include a separatedetailed proposal budget.

32. Other expenses: all other expenses directly related tothis proposal that are not included in the categories above.Please specify type of expense on budget form and provideadditional detail in budget narrative.

Note: Knight will not pay overhead or indirect costs

Type of consultant orcontractor

No. days onproposal

Dailyrate

Total

Marketing 10 $250 $2,500


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13. Budget narrative: please provide concise detail to expense and revenue items. If line item is 0,

no detail is needed.

Revenues:

1. Individual contributions:2. Corporate contributions:

3. Foundation grants:

4. Government support:

5. Parent organization support:

6. Special events:

7. In-kind contributions:

8. Contributed income -other:

9. Fees for services:

10. Admissions:

11. Memberships:

12. Publications and royalties:

13. Contracted services:

14. Rentals:

15: Earned income - other:

16-18: Other income:

Expenses:

20. Program salaries and wages:

Note: all budgeted wages are for phase one/six months only.

Program Manager/Software Architect Founder Jeff Reifman will drive the overall project and help design and code the

software.

Software Developer (Facebook/NewsCloud) Will help build the software for the Facebook applications and interface to the

NewsCloud system. Software Developer (Street Team) Will help build the street team specific features for Facebook including prize catalog,

leader board, redemption and back office inventory, order tracking and fulfillment features.

Outreach/Partnership Development/Community management and marketing This person will work closely with Mr.

Reifman to build partnerships, drive marketing and PR efforts while also lead managing and moderation strategies for

publication communities. They will also need to find partners for gift incentives for the street team.

Customer support/fulfillment This person will manage the day-to-day tasks of online customer support and prize

fulfillment/order mgmt/shipping for the Climate Change street team.


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Graduate assistant A senior graduate research assistant will assist in all phases of the research and development process.

Research Advisory 3 research advisors from the senior faculty will guide research design and methods to ensure quality and

validity. Advisors will also help identify future funding and dissemination channels.

21. Program benefits:

22. Administrative salaries and wages (indirect costs):

23. Administrative benefits:

24. Contract services:

Its most efficient to contract auxiliary development, system administration and graphic design.

Principal investigator, research - Dr. Greenhow will lead the development of all research phases: IRB approval, piloting,

development and implementation of research instruments and protocols, data collection and analysis, coordinating senior

research advisory, and final report writing, publication and dissemination.

Graphic design This will be used to hire a design firm or design contractor to work with NewsCloud to generate a nice

interactive design framework that can be re-used and tweaked for both publications.

System administrator Likely, Todd Weaver, this person will help with managing security, backups and other system

administration tasks.

25-32: Other expenses:

Travel Travel to Minnesota for Jeff Reifman, research and dissemination travel for Dr. Greenhow and unforeseen travel

needs for spreading word about this project.

Supplies and materials Support for phone conversations between Mr. Reifman and Dr. Greenhow, etc.

Marketing See our marketing plan above.

Other (specify): Web hosting This pays for the web hosting and bandwidth for Facebook applications at

JohnCompanies.com, our current host.

Research subject stipends Funds will be used to encourage attendance at focus groups and to increase participation in

surveys. Climate Change street team gifts and fulfillment These funds will be used as a prize incentive budget for street team

members. We will try to use online gifts in some cases such as music downloads to reduce shipping costs. We will also need

to rely heavily on external partners to supplement our free gift budget. And finally, well have to just limit the gift levels and

number of allowed redemptions to stay within our budget.


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Signature of CEO or Executive Director of 501(c)(3) organization, president or chancellor of university

Date____________________________ Signature:____________________________________________

Name and title:___Jeff Reifman, Founder

Important!

Please include the following required supporting documents. Your proposal will not be complete without these

documents:

Organization's current annual operating budget, including revenues and expenses

As NewsCloud remains primarily a personal project, it does not at this time have an operating budget or significantrevenue and expenses.

List of organization's governing body and its officers, showing business, professional and community affiliations

NewsClouds founder and project lead is Jeff Reifman. NewsClouds primary project advisor is Alex Knight. Alex isManaging Director of EDGE Labs, a private investment and consulting firm. Prior to founding EDGE, he was a ManagingDirector of ARCH Venture Partners, a seed and early stage venture capital firm with over $1 billion under management.

Most recent IRS letter stating that your organization is exempt from tax under Section 501(c)(3) and is not a privatefoundation according to Section 509(a) of the Internal Revenue Code

NewsCloud is not organized as a 501(c)(3). We plan to work through the Tides Foundation as a fiscal sponsor.

Organization's most recent audited financial statement (must not be over one year old)

There is no audit available for NewsCloud at this time.

As a potential grantee of Knight Foundation, please be aware of the following:

Submission of this proposal indicates your organizations permission for Knight Foundation to ask people whoare not members of the Foundations staff to review the proposal and to give advice and information to theFoundation about your organization, board, staff and others with whom you are affiliated.

Materials submitted to Knight Foundation as part of the proposal process become the property of theFoundation and will not be returned. The materials will be used as the Foundation deems appropriate. They arenot subject to any right of confidentiality unless specifically agreed to in writing by Knight Foundation.

Knight Foundation is under no obligation to fund or otherwise have a future relationship with the applicant. If itdoes choose to have a relationship, Knight Foundation may suggest various kinds of relationships, includingcontracts, grants, loans, program-related investments, or other kinds of investments and relationships.

Please return the proposal form and required attachments to:

Grants ManagerJohn S. and James L. Knight FoundationWachovia Financial Center


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Suite 3300200 South Biscayne Blvd.Miami, FL 33131-2349

Or email the proposal to: [email protected] and mail the attachments separately.

Documents

NewsCloud 2008 Grant Full Application