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The blog of the John S. & James L. Knight Foundation

Announcing 84 finalists in Detroit Knight Arts Challenge

June 17, 2013, 9:47 a.m., Posted by Tatiana Hernandez – 0 Comments

detroitarts

Above: In Detroit, a large-scale video projection in which an artist’s paintings are brought to life through animation features a nearly life-size whale. Photo credit: Dlectricity.

Wow, Detroit. You completely blew us away. After receiving a record-breaking 1,400 applications to this year's Knight Arts Challenge, we weren't sure what to expect. And then we started reading...

What we found was a community bursting with creative, innovative and distinctly DETROIT ideas. Many of the ideas came from individuals and small collectives (something we hope you’ll see reflected in the list of finalists).  Several investigated the use of space/place and art. Some looked to marry Detroit’s past and its future. All were thoughtfully reviewed and considered by our panel of local reviewers and Knight staff.

Today, we’re excited to share the 84 finalists in the Detroit Knight Arts Challenge. Take a look and let us know what you think.

What do women want? To create a better Internet, says AOL CEO

June 17, 2013, 9:07 a.m., Posted by Andrew Sherry – 0 Comments

mediaminds

Above, AOL’s CEO of Brand Group, Susan Lyne, and company CEO Tim Armstrong

AOL is deliberately steering away from the engineer-driven, male-dominated Internet culture spawned by Silicon Valley and focusing on creating the Internet programming that people really want, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong told media industry leaders at a Knight Foundation-sponsored event Thursday in New York.

Armstrong, sharing a stage with top deputy Susan Lyne at the Media Minds breakfast, added that with women increasingly becoming the dominant users of online content and commerce sites, AOL's mostly female top management team represents a competitive advantage, “because they bring an understanding of the half of the world that our competitors lack.”

"People want quality content from trusted sources," rather than spending their time hunting for it in the wilds of the web, Armstrong said, explaining why he believed this strategy had broad general appeal. Lyne evoked the model of television, where franchises were built on programming, to argue that quality content brands represent the future.

Since splitting with Time Warner more than three years ago, AOL has acquired TechCrunchEngadgetThe Huffington Post and others, which combined attract 200 million monthly visitors, 100 million of those in the United States, Armstrong said.

Last chance to get questions answered about Knight’s Community Information Challenge

June 14, 2013, 10:49 a.m., Posted by Elizabeth R. Miller – 0 Comments

2013 Knight Community Information Challenge from Knight Foundation

With the July 1 deadline in the Knight Community Information Challenge right around the corner, we wanted to give folks one last chance to ask questions about this funding opportunity for community news and information projects.

We hope you’ll join us at 12 p.m. ET on Friday, June 20 for Office Hours (register here). There won't be a set agenda or presentation. Instead, we'll be available to take questions from any potential applicants.

This year the challenge, which offers matching funds to community and place-based foundations, is evolving. While it continue to be an open contest for all kinds of media projects, we’re particularly interested in open government projects that improve the way citizens and governments interact. The challenge is also offering up to $50,000 in seed funding to community and place-based foundations (though open government projects may be considered for larger grants). Our goal is to provide the support funders need to test their ideas and assumptions, and evolve as need be, before going on to the more costly process of building out a full project.

In case you missed it, here are the top five things to know about the Knight Community Information Challenge and some insights and info on applying. If you’re looking to see how past winners have successfully used challenge funds, you can read more about how foundations are: