ChicagoWRKS.com: News Media Revolution in a 20 Second Soundbite!

December 12

OK, Chicago,  it’s time for Chicago news media to stop moaning and groaning about gangs and drugs in Chicago and start helping Chicagoans DO SOMETHING to solve the problem.

This clip was shot in a mostly white upper class Chicago suburb and spoken by mostly white people. So you may ask: who are these people to talk about gangs and drugs in Chicago?

Well,  just wait ’til you see our next clip shot at El stations and places in Chicago.

Independent filmmaker Dan Skubal (with the dog) shot this video in Glenview, IL. The man has talent.

The video is a promo for our submission to the Knight News Challenge.  While we can’t discuss the specifics of the online interactive platform of news and information that we’ve designed for Chicago and its 77 neighborhood areas, we are proud to say that it

• Values Chicagoans of all ages as informed participants in the government decisions that affect their lives.
• Values journalism and democracy as integrated, collaborative/competitive enterprises.
• Works across media platforms to make reporters and problem-solvers of everyone at all stages of its problem-solving news cycle.
• Re-invents and re-energizes the news cycle, morphing it from the clock time between editions of a news outlet to the mental time between community-generated solutions to a problem.
• Facilitates its news cycle impartially and accurately.
• Taps (profitably, in time) the “Market of the Whole” of all Chicagoans by meeting massive, citywide demand for productive civic discourse.
• Can be utilized by other news media.

Morphing the news. From reported story to defined solution to newsworthy outcome. That’s our core idea. Expanding the news cycle from the traditional 24 hour cycle of news reportage to an extended, even multi-month, cycle of news reportage and problem-solution. Creating a news cycle that gives Chicagoans time to consider and advance the city’s most promising opportunities, whatever these may be, and to address its most intractable problems, from potholes to economic growth to youth violence. And, that enables Chicagoans to revisit and revise past solutions even as it generates new ones.

This, as we see it, is the future of journalism in a viable democracy. And this is what our interactive platform will create in Chicago.

“UNDISCOVERED IZ ME: A NEW DISCOVERY”

December 10

Last week our seven-member group emailed a submission to the Knight News Challenge after three months of intense work.  Tweaking our archive website today, I came across this writing by a natural poet, Shannon Phillips, who, as as sophomore at Marshall High School in Chicago,  jotted it down,  along with several other pages of material about herself and her life, during an organizational meeting at which she was a fairly active contributor.  Her poem has a touch of the visionary optimism of the English poet Willam Blake.

Hi!

I’m an undiscovered poet,
No one seems to care to know it,
I wrote 160 and more to come,
They are my feelings and mind talk on paper.
People see them as nothing but paper,
But the wise, smart, and beautiful enter them
As another world made by pen from hand.

A new discovery is me,
yet so undiscovered, see,
come, come,
cross the deep, dark ocean,
swim my sweet sea,
fly my fine few skies,
get swooped up soon and soothed in my world,
be taken by my air,
WIND!!

In my world you are a piece of clean paper,
You can be anything you want to be,
Float finely like a feather,
Stay free in any kind of weather,
But still people are afraid to see through concrete,
Afraid and forbidden to see,
So still undiscovered iz me.

Shannon Phillips made this case for poetry in an unpoetic world during a 2-hour newspaper planning meeting in 1997.   At the end of the meeting I discovered it sitting on a table, seemingly forgotten, along with several other pages of her writing.

“Undiscovered” and other poems and fiction by Marshall students appeared in Keepin’ It Real: Voices of Marshall High School, a 16-page, 40 photograph, student-generated school newspaper that was distributed throughout the Marshall community in June, 1997 after an intensive month-long partnership of Marshall students, staff, THE AUSTIN VOICE, and Chicago Civic Media Project.

Congratulations Chicago New Media Groups!

November 12

Big development. Three foundations, as reported several days ago here in Crain’s Chicago Business, have just awarded $500,000 to 13  Chicago New-Media groups.  This is a step forward!  Here, at the Beachwood Reporter, is a detailed account how each of the 13 recipients will use funds received.

Below is a mashup of Crain’s briefer account, links we’ve added, and details from the Beachwood Reporter:

• Columbia College Chicago ($45,000) for a joint effort with the Chicago Tribune to cover news in the Austin neighborhood on the city’s West Side using student and professional journalists to cover government meetings, businesses, churches and other institutions in Austin, with content distributed via a new Web site (www.austintalks.org), Tribune’s ChicagoNow blog site (www.chicagonow.com), a mobile edition, a newsletter and text messaging.
• Gapers Block Media LLC ($35,000) to boost neighborhood news coverage at GapersBlock.com.
• Loyola University Chicago ($45,000) for a partnership with Benito Juarez Community Academy to train student journalists to cover the Southwest Side neighborhood of Pilsen.
• South Suburban Publishing LLC ($30,000) to train citizen journalists in Markham to cover news for www.southsnews.com.
• Chicago Assn. of Hispanic Journalists ($30,000) for a new Web site to promote local Latino journalists.
• Chicago Youth Voices Network ($60,000) to engage several hundred youth journalists in reporting on Chicago teens.
• Community Media Workshop ($45,000) for a news-tracking effort and an ethnic media news service.
• Chicago News Cooperative ($50,000) to provide enterprise coverage of Chicago.
• Northwestern University ($30,000) for grad students to help develop two local community news ventures.
• Better Government Assn. ($60,000) to train volunteer monitors to report for a new virtual town hall Web site.
• Beachwood Media Co. ($35,000) to enhance technology and content to create a sustainable business model.
• Brad Flora ($35,000) to upgrade software used by WindyCitizen.com.

Restoring the Social Contract that Binds Americans

November 12

Timothy Egan argues that the social contract that binds Americans is BROKEN.  Here is his column in today’s New York Times. Comments are interesting also. Our comment, online here, is as follows:

The message from the pleasant and nobly resilient city of St Louis rings true. The social contract that bound Americans is broken.

But the mechanism that repairs it may not be a political party led by a modern day Teddy Roosevelt (where among us today is there one like him?)

Rather the reparing mechanism may be a new kind of media: neither public nor commercial, as we know them today, but civic: dedicated to making citizens and government responsive and accountable to each other in realizing opportunities and solving problems in communities of any size: local, state, national and  even international.

To restore the social contract that binds Americans, civic media would use modern communications technologies to give all Americans an informed voice in the political decisions that affect their lives.

Why doesn’t America already have a civic media? It should, for civic media is technologically feasible. But two things are lacking. First is trust on the part of owners of existing media in the core premise of democracy that “men be trusted to govern themselves.” And second, awareness of the fact that any media that engages all members of a community is ipso facto tapping Market of the Whole, the largest of all large markets and the new 21st century Holy Grail of marketing.

The fact of the Market of the Whole ensures that civic media will happen, sooner or later. And when it does, it will spawn not one modern day Teddy Roosevelt but an array of them. Google “Seeding Civic Media.”

Another Song, Globally Assembled

November 6

Like we keep saying, the musicians seem to be ahead of the journalists. Using technology to interact in a unified way. Here is the “unifying” song we posted last May. Now along comes Tim with the one below, also globally assembled. Starts off a little slow but picks up when the sitar rolls in and the man from the Congo starts singing.

Hey WRKS team here’s an idea: how about uploading a song written and performed by an array of Chicago musicians as part of the launch of Chicago WRKS? And site visitors: the WRKS team is working overtime to put  finishing touches on its rockin’ submission to the Knight News Challenge.

President Obama: “The Ability of Citizens to Have a Say. . .”

September 23

” . . .  in how they are governed.” So spoke President Obama in today’s address to the United Nations, evoking the language of the 1945 UN charter. Today, most Americans feel they lack this ability. The challenge to nation’s print and electronic newsmedia, let along to the President himself, is to ensure that the American people have it.  To lack it is to lack democracy’s foundational right: that of self-government.

From all this it follows that the future of journalism is no longer with traditional news reporting – which transfers the news to passive audiences – but rather with the transfer of the news to active audiences – to citizens who use the news to interact proactively and productively with each other, with journalists, and with governments – all this at local, state, national and even international levels.  The traditional duty of the press to inform citizens is evolving into a duty to mediate between citizens and governments.

This, and this alone, is democracy. Yo, Palo Alto lurkers: we are happy that you following us – anything keeping you from talking back?

An Open Letter to President Obama

September 10, 2009

Dear President Obama,

These fighting words culminated your speech on health care last night:

But that is not what the moment calls for.  That’s not what we came here to do.  We did not come to fear the future.  We came here to shape it.  I still believe we can act even when it’s hard.  (Applause.)  I still believe — I still believe that we can act when it’s hard.  I still believe we can replace acrimony with civility, and gridlock with progress.  I still believe we can do great things, and that here and now we will meet history’s test.

Because that’s who we are.  That is our calling.  That is our character.  Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.)

We did not come here to fear the future. We came here to shape it.

Strong words. Promising! But who exactly will shape the future? Just who are “we” in the lines above? In the opening sentences you uses “we” to refer to yourself – “That’s not what we came here [to Washington] to do.” But in the sentences that follow, your “we” includes all Americans, concluding with “Because that’s who we are. That is our calling. That is our character.”

Your inclusive “we” affirms your faith the American character and in America’s ability to shape the nation’s future as a people. Americans can “replace acrimony with civility,” you asserts, “and gridlock with progress.”

We entirely agree – but may we ask what you (or anyone in American journalism or government, for that matter) have done since you took office to give Americans the chance to do so?

By all accounts, last summer’s “debate” on health care was a shambles; it was uncivil and unproductive. And looking more broadlay at the state of American politics, the sad fact, as we see it, is that the nation’s journalists and elected leaders have used the term “national debate” for decades to describe public squabbles among entrenched interest groups on issues ranging from education to immigration to foreign policy that have left Americans voiceless.  The outcome? A polarized politics, a gridlocked government and an alienated citizenry.

In the terms you used last night, has this broken system of political discourse not kept America from realizing its call and has corrupted its character?

As we often say at this site, the obvious remedy for a dysfunctional system of discourse is a strictly non-partisan civic mechanism that restores our politics and government to functionality: a mediating media capable of making all citizens – and citizens and government – responsive and accountable to each other in defining and solving the problems, and maximizing the opportunities, that will shape America’s future.

For years America has had in place the interactive technologies needed to realize such a media.

So Mr. President, that’s our challenge:  support the creation of a market and voter driven civic media that gives all Americans an informed voice in the decisions that affect their lives at local, state and national levels.

Sincerely,

The Chicago Civic Media Team

CHICAGO WRKS poll: What’s Chicago’s #1 Unsolved Problem?

August 10. We’re working to create Chicago WRKS, an online network of problem-solvers in Chicago.  Begining early next year, we plan to start holding online voter-driven reality TV-style contests where small teams compete and co-operate with other to win cash prizes by developing best solutions to key Chicago problems. Details, with ways to get involved, are below.

But first: how will Chicago WRKS select Chicago’s #1 unsolved problem?

YOU DECIDE! CHICAGOANS BUILD CHICAGO’S FUTURE – NOT JUST CITY HALL!

If you vote for “Other Problem,” please identify your unsolved problem at the link for “comments” at the very end of this post (our poll should have included Public Schools, for instance. So far a third of all votes have been for “other problem”, but none have identified that problem!) Last weekend we gave this poll to some 30 visitors at the Fiesta del Sol in Pilsen Village (look for results at the Aug. 2 post just below this one).

Now for some details about Chicago WRKS. After much thought about the future of civic media, we decided to follow up on CCMP advisor Arturo Castro’s wise suggestion and launch an online prototype of our civic media reality TV contests here in Chicago, hopefully in early 2010. The site name, Chicago WRKS, echoes Chicago’s “City That Works” motto. We’ll start small, initially reaching out to high school and college students and other active computer users, but working to eventually create online problem-solving contests that target and engage the “Market of the Whole” of all 2.5 million Chicagoans. The flyer we handed out August 1 at Fiesta del Sol describes it:

Here’s a new idea. Really new! Chicago WRKS brings Chicago politics and government into the 21^st century. How? Its online forums give all Chicagoans an informed voice in the decisions that affect their lives.

So how does it work? You’ve seen American Idol and Survivor and Big Brother and Dancing with the Stars.  You’ve seen Reality TV.  Now imagine a three-month reality TV contest right here in Chicago with $25,000 in prizes. Imagine dozens of Chicago teams (2/4 members) competing and co-operating with each other in a series of online (eventually televised) contests to find the BEST SOLUTION to a crucial Chicago problem. And, competing also to be the BEST PROBLEM SOLVER. Each team has its own website with videos and research materials.  So who chooses the problems to be solved?

Thanks – and here’s how to get involved in Chicago WRKS:

□    Volunteer or work as a paid staff member.   Right now, we need sharp IT people and also strong networkers to expanding our problem-solving ties to businesses, community groups and community & mainstream media.

□    Compete! Form your own WRKS team: IT, video, researcher, presenter (contact us NOW, let us know what problem you want to solve and we’ll let you know when to start competing).

□    Support your favorite team online (via research) and in your community – contact us NOW and we will connect you with prospective teams that are looking for your support.

□    Check out the teams and their solutions online when the first contest begins next year and VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!

To reach us, email Steve Sewall at sewall2020[at]comcast.net.

YOU are Chicago. WE are Chicago Civic Media Project.

Fiesta del Sol Poll Results

August 1 + 9. Fiesta del Sol was great this year! Weather was perfect and we were warmly welcomed last Saturday by volunteer Catea Merchan and Festival Co-ordinator Claudia Marchan, who was so laid back and helpful you’d never guess that she and a staff of only 5 plus 200 volunteers could organize  a four-day event attracting 1,200,000 visitors!  At the Fiesta, the Chicago Civic Media team of Gary, Steve and Tim did some taping for a video we’ll be uploading here and did a little survey of some 30 people for input on Chicago’s most important problem to be addressed in the first-ever online Chicago WRKS contest tentatively set for early next year.  The responses surprised us with their strong concern with only two problems: job creation and gangs and drugs.

□         Parking Meters                     -  1

□         Chicago’s Olympics Bid         -  0

□         Casino Gambling                  -   0

□         Gangs and Drugs                – 12

□         Job Creation                       – 20

□         Other problem                      – 0

Does this small sample reflect the concerns of the Hispanic community as a whole? Important question.  And how will other Chicago communities respond to the same poll? We’re working to get better information for you.  Meanwhile, Thanks Catea and Claudia for welcoming us to a great event.

The Chicago Challenge!

July 19. Hey Chicago, let’s get civic media going before the lurkers accessing us from Palo Alto and Seattle try to run off with the idea! (On 2nd thought, let ‘em. Civic media is public domain in the first place. Like a good folksong, it belongs to everyone. But no one does it as well as us.) The Chicago Civic Media Project (CCMP) is looking for a few good people to help launch a Chicago-based online/onair/inprint CIVIC MEDIA site:

• A WEBSITE DESIGNER with technical site promotion skills (to social networks, RSS feeds, other sites). The artist who designed yr site would be great, but need a designer who has time also to be a promoter, audience expander.
• A MARKETER to interact online, by phone & in person with all kinds of local people, businesses and groups (schools, universities, political groups right center and left) to build audience, generate contestant participation, link up with other media and attract advertisers. (I have developed strategies for all four tasks).

This is a ground-floor opportunity for talented individuals who share three core convictions:

• THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY Essential to the future of American democracy is the judicious use of modern interactive communications technologies to give ordinary citizens an informed voice in the political decisions that affect their lives and to make citizens and government responsive and accountable to each other at local, state and national levels .

• THE INEVITABILITY OF CIVIC MEDIA. American politics is today in the very early stages of being transformed and reinvented by the same massive demand for interactive media experiences that has fueled the growth of all modern communications technologies and that has already transformed American business, culture and personal life.

• THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTESTS: INFORMATION ACTED ON, NOT MERELY ABSORBED. The interactive politically-themed media experiences that most successfully engage the largest – that engage the largest segment of the Market of the Whole of all members of a community - will be those that most most productively replicate the great game of voter-driven democracy.   Voter-driven reality TV is in many ways a viable model for politically themed interactive media experiences.

CCMP proposes to launch a non-partisan, citizen-participatory CIVIC MEDIA here in Chicago as soon as early 2010. Designed initially to engage several dozen contestants and several thousand viewers and voters in the great game of democracy, this interactive media will grow by stages until it ultimately engages hundreds of contestant teams and serves all 2.5 million Chicagoans. By definition, CIVIC MEDIA is a large-audience decision making process that helps distribute the making of government decisions throughout a community of any size. In a political context, for instance, a nonpartisan, issue-centered, outcome-directed CIVIC MEDIA gives citizens and governments at local, state, national and international levels the interactive platforms they need in order to complete two tasks: define and solve problems and maximize growth opportunities.

Volunteers are welcome. For those seeking compensation: for proven co-workers, I will offer a percentage of ownership of the local Chicago site and, as relationships develop, in the nationwide civic media project.

My name is Steve Sewall. I’ve developed and implemented civic media prototypes here in Chicago over the past 20 years. I am a career educator, businessman and media entrepreneur. I hold degrees in English from Harvard (A.B. ’64), Yale (M.A.T. ’66) and the University of California at Berkeley (Ph.D., 1991).

Email Steve Sewall

• Archive site of 1990’s civic media work in Chicago (esp. the city’s gang/drug)
• America’s Choice Platform for digitized problem-solving networkTV
• Weathering the Storm civic media and the global finance crisis