Help VPR Win A Knight News Challenge Grant

Knight Foundation News Challenge

Each year, the Knight Foundation makes grants to support, among other causes, Journalism & Media Innovation. This year, the Knight News Challenge is being issued in three rounds, and your vote can help us get to the semi-finals: here's how!

VPR has applied for this first round of funding to expand our local news service, Public Post. Public Post leverages the network of Vermont city & town meeting minutes to create a tool for journalists as well as a hub for discussion and sharing among citizens. It allows anyone - reporters, bloggers, town officials, and citizens - to search across town meeting minutes for key themes as well as to comment on, share, and embed the minutes. The goal of the Post is to identify local news stories and themes of concern to Vermonters, in an open online space.

We're applying for the Knight Challenge Grant to expand the service to many more cities and towns and to enhance the data journalism tools. Currently, the Post includes the minutes from more than 70 cities and towns across the state; with improved tools for collecting government minutes, we plan to increase the number of towns represented in the Post. With improved tools for computer-assisted reporting, we will leverage the index of records to automatically identify news stories, topics, and trends being discussed at local government meetings.

How YOU Can Help

The Knight folks have stated that the five Applications receiving the most Likes, Re-blogs, Tweets, and Comments will automatically become semi-finalists. We want YOU to show your support. Here's how:

• Do you use Tumblr? If so, visit the VPR Application (it's posted on Tumblr) here and Re-blog, Like, or Comment on our application to show your support.
• Do you use Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Google, Disqus, or OpenID? If so, visit the VPR Application and scroll down to the Disqus Comment box and "Like" it there and/or leave a comment. You can login with your Facebook, Twitter, Disqus, Yahoo, Google, or OpenID logins.
• If you do use Twitter, Tweet your support of the Public Post grant. Please include the Knight Foundation's Twitter handle @knightfdn and the #VPR hashtag.
• Spread the word! Share this blog post on Facebook, Twitter, and with your email contacts and ask your friends to support this local journalism effort.

Thank you in advance. Taking these quick and simple steps will really help spread the word and show the Knight Foundation that you and your fellow Vermonters support local journalism with impact.