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I'm doing it again. This time, it's not the Profile site. I've come up with an idea to bridge the digital divide in our neighborhood via SMS (texting).

The 2012 Knight News Challenge (KNC) is on a fast track compared to previous years. Submit a 450 word proposal by midnight, March 17 (tomorrow!), finalists to be announced April 2, and winners to be announced June 18.

The proposal is to use Twitter and system.net (ident.ca) to broadcast native language tweets via SMS. Participants in the system will attend a workshop where they will learn how to join Twitter or system.net and subscribe and configure a feed via SMS to their cell phone in their preferred language. Creating the tweeting account could be done at the workshop with no further direct access to the tweet account meaning no one needs to have internet access at home. Initial language translations would be in Somali and Amharic (spoken by the Oromo). Translators would be hired to translate and send out the tweets. I envision three feeds: English, Somali, and Amharic.

Seward Neighborhood Group supports the proposal and will contribute some administrative time to the project if funded.

Here's some data from Pew that shows that lower-income, minorities, and less-educated are using SMS extensively.

I'll send out a link to the final proposal at the KNC site. It's all in the Tumblr system so you can like and reblog. The top 5 submissions in terms of likes/reblogs will become semi-finalists.

Knight News Challenge Entries at Tumblr

Knight Proposal
These are the questions and word restrictions from the proposal. It’s short and sweet but only a foot in the door if accepted. An interview and detailed budget will follow if this one is accepted.

1. What do you propose to do? [20 words]

Provide meeting and event announcements for Seward Neighborhood in Minneapolis, MN using Twitter, status.net, and SMS and incorporating native languages for immigrant populations.

2. Is anyone doing something like this now and how is your project different? [30 words]

Many projects have messaging systems using Twitter and other social media tools for providing neighborhood information but none that I’m aware of integrate with SMS and translate to native languages.

3. Describe the network with which you intend to build or work. [50 words]

Social network tools Status.net, identi.ca, and Twitter.com. Both Status.net and identi.ca are open source and both integrate completely with Twitter to create a very flexible overall system.

4. Why will it work? [100 words]

The project directly addresses digital divide issues by using SMS to route around the internet and provide access to underserved communities that are engaged in texting. It acknowledges that for some it will be easier to read the information in their first language rather than English. With this project, we hope to increase community engagement.

5. Who is working on it? [100 words]

Peter Fleck is the project lead. The Seward Neighborhood Group, major representative to the City of Minneapolis for the neighborhood, is chief sponsor and will provide administrative support. Redesign, Inc. the neighborhood community development corporation, also supports the project. Translators will be hired under contract as the project progresses and the software is built.

6. What part of the project have you already built? [100 words]

The English content is in place via the neighborhood’s established Twitter feed (@sewardtweets, 367 followers) curated by Peter Fleck. The Twitter account has been in place since 2009. The neighborhood also uses other social media and blogging tools that will enhance this project including the neighborhood Facebook account (facebook.com/sewardneighborhood), a news and events blog (sewardprofile.posterous.com), and a neighborhood calendar (bit.ly/sewardcal).

7. How would you sustain the project after the funding expires? [50 words]

The neighborhood group will seek City of Minneapolis community participation funds for continued funding and a Kickstarter initiative will be attempted. We also hope to develop a subscription service to allow other neighborhoods to tap the work we are doing.

--
Peter Fleck
Blog: http://pfhyper.posterous.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/pfhyper
pfhyper@gmail.com
PF Hyper LLC
http://pfhyper.com
Community Work:
http://sewardprofile.posterous.com

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The Resolution:
Whereas the Internet functions well as a free and open commons, be it resolved that Congress and the Senate should pass no laws that hinder that freedom or censor content such as the proposed SOPA and PIPA acts.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs

See the full gallery on Posterous

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I've said this before to whoever will listen (short of ranting on street corners) but the future of our personal engagements on the Internet is going to be more twitter-like and google-like than facebook-like. Don't get me wrong, it's not necessarily going to be the current corporate Twitter entity or the Google entity (although that's much more likely) but it's definitely not going to be the Facebook entity unless they steer their corporate battleship in an entirely new direction (and they could do that just as Microsoft did with the dawn of Internet Explorer). Or unless we cede control of the Internet to AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, etc. You can be sure that Facebook will fit in very comfortably with that group.

Facebook, like the AOL of the 90s, is trying to wall us in so our Total Internet Experience is The Facebook Experience. This is antithetical to the nature of the Internet where the next thing is a link away and where the ecology has grown by leaps and bounds with no help from Facebook. The Internet does not need to be a walled garden and that idea has no benefits for Internet denizens. There is lots to support that the walled garden idea benefits Facebook's corporate model which is to sell as much of your personal information as it can get away with to other corporate entities. Yes, if you scan my Twitter feed you will find personal info but this is the info that I choose to share. Facebook shares whatever it can get away with.

Bonus Link: Doc Searls talks about moving tweeting from Twitter which is an excellent idea.

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We won't involve ourselves in the WordPress vs. Drupal debate.

So if you're at Minnewebcon, consider dropping by our session at 11!

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