Knight Drupal Initiative: $480,000

Posted on March 5, 2009 by agentrickard

At DrupalCON DC yesterday, Jose Zamora of Knight Foundation announced the first round of grants from the KDI. Below is the press release from Knight:

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Six ideas that will make it easier for anyone to join the digital conversation will be realized with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The projects will use the free and popular software Drupal, which allows users to efficiently publish content online.

"These powerful tools will help people exchange information and ideas about their communities -- which we hope will make them more engaged and vibrant places to live," said Jose Zamora, Knight Foundation's Journalism Program Associate.

The Knight Drupal Initiative's winners, announced at the DrupalCon DC Conference, will receive a total of $485,380 to:

* Create concise, up-to-date instructions for Drupal software packages so that tech novices can use the tools; (Winner: Programmer Addison Berry)

* Create a free publishing system to make it easier for several geographic communities to share local news with each other; (Winner: Oregon-based funnymonkey.com)

* Allow anyone, anywhere to easily create a Drupal online news site whose content can be published on Facebook in order to reach an extended social network; (Winner: Software developer Dave Cohen)

* Develop software that allows people to create and share a personalized stream of information within their social network, helping them to filter and recommend articles to others interested in the same issues; (Winner: Instant Syndicating Standards, a Brazilian non-profit)

* Add a micro-blogging function to Drupal that will allow users to transmit brief text updates on their Web sites (Winner: Web developer Rob Loach)

* Create a tool that will help residents better communicate and understand information about their community by allowing them to geo-tag -- or add a geographical identification -- to stories so they can be displayed on a map; (Development Seed, a Washington D.C. firm)

The Knight Drupal Initiative tapped into a massive network of programmers, to get their recommendations for how to hasten media innovation for the common good. The Drupal Community, a group of about 350,000 programmers who write free software collaboratively on the Web, solicited, reviewed and recommended the projects for funding. The Drupal Community also includes the more than 1.4 million users worldwide who rely on Drupal to manage the content of their Web sites. The application process was open, meaning anyone could submit or vote on an idea. Knight Foundation made the final selection.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation invests in journalism excellence worldwide and in the vitality of U.S. communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Since 1950, the foundation has granted more than $400 million to advance quality journalism and freedom of expression. Knight Foundation focuses on projects with the potential to create transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

What can I say, but "Wow." I am especially excited about the Documentation sprint, which will directly benefit drupal.org.