Rural Information, Practices and Peer Learning Exchange (RIPPLE)
Describe your project – 1800 characters:
RIPPLE (www.ripplenw.org) offers rural community members the virtual tools to share ideas, find answers, and connect with experts on hosted discussion forums.
We seek $300,000 from the Knight News Challenge award to finish building the RIPPLE site, bring aboard new staff capacity to provide user content and technical assistance, and to develop marketing and revenue building strategies (fee-based or ad sales) so that the site can be self-supporting by 2012.
Our vision for RIPPLE is that it will grow into a strong rural community building network that will become self-supporting. We will reach a more diverse rural audience - youth, Tribal, and Latino communities. We will have the staff to create new and exciting content and to provide live chats and technical assistance as needed.
RIPPLE is a project of Rural Development Initiatives (RDI – www.rdiinc.org). RIPPLE furthers the RDI mission to expand the knowledge, skills and networks of the people we serve by acting as a virtual meeting place and classroom for rural people throughout the northwest.
In order to achieve these outcomes, RIPPLE offers four main features.
• Peer Services Exchange - a searchable database of services and expertise available throughout the network.
• Discussion Forums - rural community development leaders such as Michael Shuman, author of "Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age," host discussion forums.
• Stories of Success and Lessons Learned - powerful stories highlighting successful community building initiatives that can be replicated in other communities.
• Information Clearinghouse) - website links provide access to information and best practices.
Mentoring feedback on your News Challenge proposal
Hi, Kim
I recall sending you feedback earlier this month, but cannot find a record of that, so I'm posting this comment just to double-check.
Generally, your proposal seems very strong. Here are my further suggestions:
1) PLAY UP THE LOCAL GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS. I didn't realize until reading down below your summary that you're looking to fund a project focused on Oregon. Local communities are crucial to the Knight News Challenge, so I would play that up in the project title and in the summary lede.
2) RELEVANCE BEYOND THE INTERNET? One challenge with media for rural communities is the relatively lower penetration of Internet access, especially broadband. How will this project connect with people who use the net rarely or not at all? Will it be dialup-friendly? Mobile friendly? Will it have a text messaging component? Without this, the broader community relevance of this project is questionable. I'd suggest that you plan for outreach beyond the net -- and budget for it.
3) OPEN SOURCE: You'd asked me separately if Expression Engine is sufficiently open-source to meet that News Challenge requirement. My understanding is that you can use proprietary software to build this project, but you have to be able to share with others how you built your system, so others can replicate.
Hope this helps,
- Amy Gahran
suggestions
Yes, I agree. I need to update this with our proposed activities. I started with this to give a sense of what RIPPLE does now. Thank you for your suggestion!
The point?
I think it would help if you led with what you want to use the grant for, not what you're already doing.