Tennenbaum

After the vast success of CGI, President Clinton decided to open CGIU: same commitment model, same incredible conference-style led by world changing speakers, but this time for university students only. The first CGIU was in 2008, and this weekend will see the emergence of the 5^th conference at GW University. 

I’m really excited to see what ideas come out of this weekend. Students come from all over the world to participate, and each one brings their own spunk and wits to tackle the issues that need solving today.

Makes me think of Anne-Marie Slaugther’s essay “America’s Edge: Power in the Networked Century” (Foreign Policy Jan/Feb 2009)– she actually mentions CGI there. Slaughter argues that we now live in a networked world, and that “in this world, the measure of power is connectedness.”

The twentieth-century world was, at least in terms of geopolitics, a billiard-ball world, described by the political scientist Arnold Wolfers as a system of self-contained states colliding with one another. The results of these collisions were determined by military and economic power. This world still exists today: Russia invades Georgia, Iran seeks nuclear weapons, the United States strengthens its ties with India as a hedge against a rising China. This is what Fareed Zakaria, the editor of Newsweek International, has dubbed “the post-American world,” in which the rise of new global powers inevitably means the relative decline of U.S. influence.

 The emerging networked world of the twenty-first century, however, exists above the state, below the state, and through the state. In this world, the state with the most connections will be the central player, able to set the global agenda and unlock innovation and sustainable growth. Here, the United States has a clear and sustainable edge.  

President Clinton (among many others) has realized this changing format and tapped into it to create great good. Curious to think what this view of the world (more horizontal) means for our interactions within it. Slaughter thinks that it will radically alter state and governmental systems over the next few hundred years. How do you think our social landscape will change over the next hundred years? I’m hoping to do some research in the next few weeks on the topic of global citizenship, and am curious to see how a cosmopolitan identity interacts with a national one. I don’t think they conflict but have the beautiful for a really incredible harmony.

Lastly. Among the many things that I admire about President Clinton (and there are a lot of accomplishments to choose from) is his emphasis on empowering youth. Many great thinkers advocate this approach, including my mentor Daisaku Ikeda.  

This world demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.” - - Robert F. Kennedy

We must continue to empower youth! Good luck this weekend everyone!!! (also, good youth quotes here)

So the whole point of the class (the one that I’m writing this blog for) is to come up with a business plan. My professor, Adam Penenberg (good writer, check him out) says that we should do something we love. 

Last week the founder of MediaBistro came to speak to our class. Laurel Touby’s story was beautiful because the tale of media bistro was so organic - she started throwing parties to get writers and editors together, and it went from there - with a ton of hard work of course! What was really great about Laurel was that she has always had a rugged sense of individuality, and it was her desire to live in a way true to herself that eventually led to her running and selling a multi-million dollar company. 

Ok, so, now I’ve got to create a business. What do I like? I really like blogs. I don’t do as sharp of a job with this one as a result of lack of time, but I’d like to think I could create something hip. So what would the blog be about? I’m thinking something called “The Cosmopolitan”: a non-profit online magazine dedicated to “do-good” news (think dowser meets GOOD meets Jumo pre GOOD) that exquisite multi-media journalistic pieces, book reviews and spotlighted scholarly work, Q and A’s, news aggregator, online store and a place for collaboration. It’s not necessarily money making, but I know I’d like to do it. 

Or I could always go back to blogging about food. My other dream is to open a vegan neighborhood cafe/community center that hosts permaculture workshops and serves vegan, local food. I would call it “Begonia’s” or “Peony’s”. I’m not quite sure how to translate this to an online site, however. 

My plan’s missing a crucial link - I probably need to talk to my prof. But do any of you have suggestions? 

A few books have been getting buzz lately: below are all on my reading list and in some way all attempt to create sense out of our current global structure.

 Power Inc. – David Rothkopf, now Editor at Large for Foreign Policy magazine, has also written Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making and Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power. Power Inc. is about big business and its increasing hold over world affairs. Link goes to an article of Rothkopf on the book, featured in Foreign Policy.

The Race For What’s Left – Michael T. Klare discusses the increasing competitiveness and possible violence that is emerging as a result of dwindling resources –frightening. Link goes to a recent talk he did at the Carnegie Council.

The Leaderless Revolution –Carne Ross. Ross deconstructs the authority of money and power and probes into how to move agency back into the hands of the people.

From Poverty to Power – by Duncan Green of Oxfam. Published in 2010. Green’s take on how to approach development successfully.

Pathologies of Power- Paul Farmer. Farmer is a physician and an anthropologist and started Partners-In-Health along with Jim Yong Kim (also PhD in anthropology and MD). Kim is President Obama’s nomination to head up the world bank. This book takes a deep look at our understanding of human rights and structural violence. I believe that the mix between the anthropological and public health lens, in addition to Dr. Farmer’s extensive experience, will create a searing and compelling account.

 Also, I just finished “Common Wealth” by Jeffrey Sachs and fell totally in love with it.

Now I have to move onto articles for my thesis!

Early spring this year: “weather” (pun!) this is a result of global warming or just mother nature smiling down on east coasters, I am not sure. Let’s not try and look a gift horse in the mouth. However, this does mean that the cherry blossoms will be blooming soon at Brooklyn Botanical Garden (earlier than their usual april). Check out BBG’s interactive map of the trees so that you can catch your favorite before the petals all blow away!

This article on Joseph Kony poses the perfect questions: can we use numbers and internet technology to affect justice?

In the kind of Buddhism I practice, Nichiren Buddhism, its founder (13^th Century Japanese monk Nichiren) has a quote: “if you light a lamp for another, your own way will be lit.” This is a statement by which I try to live my life, and living this way has shown me time and time again that when I extend myself for others my own life is more full than it would have ever been otherwise. It also keeps me kind and from falling into the agonies of competitiveness. The reason why this theory holds true in Buddhism is that all of life is interrelated, so your behavior towards others is linked deeply to your own life.

My thesis is now going about exploring the validity of this belief in the context of international relations. Globalization and global problems are forcing us to view ourselves as an interrelated planet instead of individual countries. In that case, do policies that take this interrelated view actually prove better for national self interest? Make for a more secure planet?

There are two parts to this research. The first is exploring the underlying political theories that discuss these concepts (I’m starting with cosmopolitanism first).  The next is actually discussing how this would look from a policy perspective. What would the U.S. do if it viewed itself as part of a global community? My passion is diplomacy but I may tackle this argument from an environmental perspective because it is where these ideas make themselves the most clear.

In the meantime these ideas are all over the place, and it really feels as though our society is moving in a new direction. Robert Wright wrote Non-Zero, in which he discusses that mutually beneficial agreements in fact pushed life and innovation forward. Jeffrey Sachs and Bill McKibben also discuss how a change in our value system will ensure our security as a planet. This changing viewpoint also has implications (from a political theory perspective) for an international state-based system, but I haven’t done as much research on that subject yet.

Any of you know what else is out there? 

Below we’ve got the 10 Commandments for Content Marketing (as it applies to Brand Journalism) put together by Shane Snow. You can check them out yourself, but there were a few things that stuck out to me in relation to the blog. Namely: Content has to be intellectually stimulating, original, and transparent. It has to be geared to its audience and to its medium (twitter, blog or print). It’s gotta keep it real and needs to be planned like a publication.

Gives me some good things with which to go back to the drawing board for my online publication. 

Cities have SO much potential for innovation, and I’ve had this fact come at me again and again in my reading this week.

First, I was reading “Common Wealth” by Jeffrey Sachs, which is a manual for “economics on a crowded planet.” As we now have more people in cities than we have in rural areas it means that we will have to invest more resources into the burgeoning field of “urban ecology”. This will be an interdisciplinary field, according to Sachs, with “architects, city planners, ecologists, public health specialists, and environmental engineers”. To achieve this, we need to create more interdisciplinary dialogue (Gallatin!) and route scientific and policy research toward the field.

Next, I was reading Foreign Policy’s Jan/Feb Issues, “The Economy Issue.” They had a feature, “How to Save the Global Economy” with 13 fascinating posts by various economists and thought leaders. Number 12? Build Green Cities, by Alex Steffen. Basically, there’s no turning back from being urban, and we need to make urban be as cutting edge as possible. “Carbon-neutral cities will also help uncage urban innovation,” he writes, “given that making them carbon-zero will involve a million opportunities to do things better in nearly every industry”. (And the picture featured in this article is of the High Line! NYC!)

We need to get going on this, asap. And if you’re in NY, I’ve got two events coming up for you:

1. FARM TO CITY EXPO: CONNECTING FARMERS TO NYC’S WHOLESALE FOOD SYSTEM
Hosted by New York City Council Speaker, Christine Quinn, March 6

2. 31st ANNUAL MAKING BROOKLYN BLOOM
Think Global, Grow Local: What’s Next for Urban Gardeners? March 10

3. 28th ANNUAL GREEN THUMB GROW TOGETHER, March 31

4. BROOKLYN FOOD CONFERENCE, May 12

The New School also had a two talks on Urban Agriculture last week:  “URBAN AGRICULTURE’S ORIGINS AND OPPORTUNITIES IN OAKLAND: AND INTERDISCIPLINARY AND PARTICIPATORY APPROACH” (Nathan McClintock) and“REALIZING THE POTENTIAL OF URBAN AGRICULTURE: Policies to Support New York City’s Growing Production Sector” (Nevin Cohen). Work worth checking out. And,NYTIMES on Urban Ag

Let’s make our cities bloom!

Good question. I’ve been working on this as a part of my thesis. How do ideas move from scholarship to policy? What creates the intellectual mood of a time? I came across this interesting article from the Columbia Journalism Review that talked about driving forces behind public opinion on climate change.

From my thesis I am interested in looking at the ideas of sustainability promoted by activists such as Wendell Berry and Bill McKibben (on the grassroots level) and Jeffrey Sachs and the normative frameworks they put out, as well as take into consideration constructivist and cosmopolitan philosophies and explore their frameworks as well (Anne-Marie Slaughter and Kwame Anthony Appiah for starters). Then, how do these eventually become law? I get the impression that artists and activists often have their fingers on society’s pulse before policy catches up. I’m going to peek into social movement theory too!

And….also from CJR – Bloomberg has a new sustainability section!! And it’s edited by Eric Roston, whom they interviewed! So, something’s happening out there. Let’s make it good!

My research over the past week has got me thinking about the future of journalism and possibilities. I rounded up a few articles from the past year that I thought did a good job of poking around the media field – just a look for you all!

1. A recap of a TIME Magazine panel on the future of journalism (Oct 2011)
2. The NextWeb has a nice little recap of London’s Social Media Week: what happens when Twitter and journalism meet?
3. 5 myths about the future of journalism, according to WaPo
4. A way old (2010!) Forbes article on the future of journalism and why it shouldn’t become a public good 
5. And…Nieman Lab, a great resource who dedicates all of its time to this stuff!  

Let me know if any of this catches your eyes!! 

My Q&A with ProPublica got me thinking about new models of journalism, or emerging forms of new media. While I will publish a more collected post tomorrow, I wanted to bring your attention to an organization that I think is doing interesting work: Purpose.

Purpose creates “21^st Century Movements.” Their aim is to use the power of an engaged people to create massive social change through social movements. They call their work “movement entrepreneurship” and have been behind campaigns that work to change health policy, security policy and marriage equality.

Purpose’s cofounder and CEO, Jeremy Heimans, was the keynote speaker on the last day of Social Media Week (Friday the 17^th). I’ve included a brief introduction to his speech (take from Social Media Week’s site and block quoted below) and the video. It’s a bit long but worth the watch: Heimans and his organization have their finger on the pulse of change, and are able to harness changing media, social and economic structures to make a big difference.

Purpose.com co-founder/CEO Jeremy Heimans will discuss new sources of power in the 21st century – and the risks and opportunities this creates for established institutions. Rapidly forming, self-organizing, technology-enabled movements (such as those seen in the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street and through groups like Avaaz.org) and new economic models (such as collaborative consumption) are emerging almost every day. Working together, these groups are challenging the power of entities such as governments, corporations and even NGOs. These changes have prompted a dramatic re-evaluation that forces us to ask what does it mean to have lasting power in the 21st century.

How do entities respond to these new demands while still fulfilling their missions? How should new entities structure themselves, and to whom are they accountable? How do we balance the inside/outside power dynamic to create positive social change? When should traditional institutions seek to deploy the technologies and techniques of rapid self-organization and mobilization to aid their existing work?

Watch the keynote here.

Editor’s note: We have to conduct two Q and As with media startups and publish them on our blogs. I got in touch with ProPublica, and luckily their Communications Manager, Minhee Cho, was kind enough to take the time to answer my long list of questions. If you don’t know ProPublica yet, you need to. They’re “an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest”, and they’re awesome. Q and A below –  Ms. Cho drops some real knowledge on us all: 

Model

1.     How does ProPublica’s online platform differentiate it from a traditional print publication? Did the founders conceptualize it in a totally different manner? Did they draw on their experiences from print publications?

The business crisis in publishing is making it increasingly difficult for the companies that control nearly all of our nation’s news organizations to afford – or at least to think they can afford – the sort of intensive and uncertain efforts that produce great investigative journalism. ProPublica’s founders recognized this need and wanted to create a news outlet that would address the growing gap in investigative journalism while also being completely independent and focusing solely on stories with “moral force.”

The fact that ProPublica is an online-only news outlet definitely works in our favor. For one thing, print is expensive. Managing the costs of printing and distributing a traditional newspaper would have made launching ProPublica much more difficult. On top of that, ProPublica stories are mostly deep-dive investigations that are much longer than what a traditional newspaper would run. An online platform is ideal for this type of journalism to thrive.

2.     Do you see yourself as a news organization? An elaboration on a news organization?

ProPublica is definitely a news organization. We produce top-notch journalism with the same quality and aggressive reporting you can find at any traditional news outlet. We are led by some of the nation’s top journalists and have won two Pulitzer Prizes in two years, which emphasizes how our cohorts feel the same way.

3.     Do you believe you fill a different role than a traditional media organization as we’ve come to know them?

In some ways, yes. Unlike many traditional news outlets, ProPublica isn’t just looking for stories that drive traffic. Our mission is to produce journalism in the public interest, or stories with “moral force” as our key leaders like to say. While a Kim Kardashian piece may bring us more readers than say a piece on the foreclosure crisis or hydraulic fracturing, we recognize the need for these stories to be told and aren’t afraid to pursue them. And luckily, our readers have grown to appreciate the issues we cover.

4.     What stylistic and content evolutions has ProPublica undergone since its launch in 2007?

ProPublica is still relatively young but we’ve had a few website redesigns since we first starting publishing stories in 2008. We’ve also increased the volume of stories from our initial launch by mixing in quick, hard-hitting posts to balance out our deep-dive stories and provide fresh content for our readers daily.

In June 2011, we also began a new project called MuckReads where we curate the best accountability stories of the day: http://projects.propublica.org/muckreads/ In line with our mission, we wanted to uphold journalism that has real-world impact and support others that have the same impetus. More details on that ongoing project here:http://www.propublica.org/article/introducing-muckreads-a-new-way-to-share-the-best-accountability-reporting

5.     Investigative reporting is inherently risky: both time and labor intensive. What’s your secret to success?

ProPublica is led by some of the nation’s most distinguished editors and journalists who are devoted to the art of investigative journalism. Their skills, experience and drive to produce stories that serve the public have led to much of ProPublica’s success.

Funding

6.     How sustainable is the non-profit model for your organization? Would you recommend it for other news organizations/platforms?

ProPublica is very fortunate to have donors that support our work wholeheartedly and recognize the ever-growing importance of investigative journalism. I have no doubt that the nonprofit model is sustainable for ProPublica in the years to come, especially with our Vice President of Development, Debby Goldberg, at the helm.

As our annual report states, we’ve doubled our number of donors from 2010 to 2011, and last year we also received more than half of our funding from supporters outside the Sandlers – demonstrating that we are on right path.

ProPublica’s General Manager, Dick Tofel, has also facilitated many new and exciting means of additional funding for ProPublica, including a partnership with SurveyMonkey Contribute (https://contribute.surveymonkey.com/charity/propublica), Amazon Kindle Singles (http://www.propublica.org/kindlesingles), Open Road (http://www.mediabistro.com/ebooknewser/open-road-teams-with-propublica_b19827), as well as advertisements on our site (http://www.propublica.org/article/why-were-publishing-advertising-and-where-we-stand-on-funding).

7.     Who tend to be your biggest donors grant-making organizations or individual supporters? In your experience, what is the relationship between one-time donors and repeat supporters?

Our largest supporters tend to be foundations, which include the Sandler Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Pew Charitable Trusts, among several others. To the best of my knowledge, we also have many significant contributions from individuals but ProPublica is still relatively new (we’re just approaching our fourth anniversary) so it’s hard to say what drives a one-time donor compared to a regular supporter. My best guess is that one-time donors are those who love a particular story or series and that repeat supporters are those that love ProPublica and want to support our overall mission rather than any specific topic we’re investigating.

8.     Has your funding model changed since inception?

ProPublica’s funding model has evolved since our inception but the change was something we always had in mind. When we first began, ProPublica relied on the Sandler Foundation for nearly all of its operating budget. Over the years, however, our funding has become more and more varied. We had only about 100 donors in 2009 but grew to 1,300 in 2010 and then 2,600 in 2011. In fact, in 2011, more than half of our funding came from donors outside the Sandlers.

9.     Do you foresee any upcoming changes or challenges with your current model?

Nothing in particular that I can think of but I don’t work in development so it’s hard to say.

Social Media

10.  Does the company have a social media strategy? How does it fit into ProPublica’s overall mission? Does social media play a significant role in capturing readers?

Social media plays a huge role in ProPublica’s overall outreach strategy. We’ve recently hired a full-time social media editor and social media producer who monitor our accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc. and engage with readers and relevant communities. They also drive ProPublica’s crowd-sourcing efforts, much of which is used for our reporting, and are always innovating new ways to create the most impact while upholding our mission of creating journalism in the public interest.

As our annual report mentions, our Twitter account has grew by nearly five-fold to the point that if ProPublica were a daily newspaper, we’d have the eighth-largest following in the country. Our Tumblr was also recently highlighted by TIME Magazine as one of its top 30 must-see Tumblr blogs: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/01/30/30-must-see-tumblr-blogs/. All this has definitely helped us spread our reach and remain at the forefront of online journalism and innovation.

11.   Could you please elaborate on the relationship between ProPublica and its online community? What sort of responses do you get from your readers? Does community response influence new topics or deeper coverage?

We constantly get comments and suggestions for new stories. While ProPublica can’t pursue everything that comes our way, we do engage with our online community and take their responses seriously.

One case that comes to mind is our recent investigation into redistricting issues in California: http://www.propublica.org/article/how-democrats-fooled-californias-redistricting-commission. Our reporter Olga Pierce and news applications developer Jeff Larson received a lot of criticism, particularly from the California Democrats that the story highlighted (go figure): http://www.propublica.org/article/how-democrats-fooled-californias-redistricting-commission. This led our redistricting team to write a separate post shortly afterward addressing the many questions our readers had:http://www.propublica.org/article/answering-your-questions-on-our-california-redistricting-story/

Trends

12.   What sorts of trends are you encountering in the field of journalism? Is ProPublica quick to adopt new models early; what are some issues you consider before making bold changes to your style of reporting?

ProPublica is definitely an early-adopter, much of that credited to the superior journalists and editors who are on top of trends. However, we do carefully approach decisions to try new models, making sure they fall in line with generating stories with impact, and not just more noise.

13.   How does ProPublica view citizen journalism?

Citizen journalism has played an important role in ProPublica’s reporting efforts. We launched our reporting network back in May 2009 with the goal of organizing readers and guiding them to “commit acts of journalism”http://www.propublica.org/article/introducing-the-propublica-reporting-network-520This was specifically focused on the stimulus when it launched, but we’ve more recently used crowdsourcing to drive our series on foreclosures and mortgage modifications:http://www.propublica.org/article/struggling-homeowners-tell-us-your-story-515 More on that project here: http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/propublica-demonstrates-the-benefits-of-crowdsourcing_b13394

Ideas for my business. I’m bouncing these off you guys! I want to do a non-profit news aggregation site. A bit like Dowser in that it promotes “solution journalism.” Below is my elevator pitch, what do you all think?

 I’m starting a blog that provides rich, short sharp snippets on theories and projects that make the world better. It will distinguish itself from the pack as a blog that is critical, intelligent and speaks across multiple sectors: a do-good site for pragmatists. It will have a strong aesthetic vision and employ the newest multimedia and blog technologies. The twist? It’s a non-profit and offers a range of services for customers and organizations including a store and publicity platform.

So now, how do I get funding? And what are my perks/services?