Organization or Business Name: 

Steinfield Inc.

Annual Operating Budget: 

$50,000

Project Title: 
Informed Opinions

Requested amount from Knight News Challenge: 

$520,000

Expected amount of time to complete project: 

12 months

Total cost of project including all sources of funding: 

Salary for personnel: $300,000
Computing equipment: $80,000
Office space: $120,000
Extra Expenses: $20,000

Describe your project:  

(1800 characters)
With the rise of twitter, google reader, tumblr, facebook and all the other social media platforms
that allow the community to determine what they find interesting, there is often a great deal of
uninformed conversation going on. The sheer amount of information constantly moving across
the web can lead to people being left out in the cold. If there was a baseline collective of
common knowledge to build on, it would create more informed conversations. In addition, if
there was some location where internet surfers could go to get the background on the hot topics
of the day, I think it would allow people to see the news that everyone else is interested in. I
would like to scan twitter’s trending topics, the facebook like application, delicious’ most
bookmarked pages, and more to discover what are the most frequently discussed news stories on
the internet at any given time.

After acquiring that information, then I would create a search engine to draw news stories from
all across the internet on those topics. Each story would be given a status of news or opinion, a
relevancy rating, a location, and sorted based on those factors (although that can be customized
by the user) and the outlet the news came from. Ideally, we could create a widget with an RSS
feed from the search engine that people could add to their websites. That way, if the conversation
moves somewhere the user feels that they lack the basic knowledge required to contribute, they
can instantly find up to date news stories.

How will your project improve the way news and information are delivered to geographic
communities? *
(750 characters)
Having the location the news story occurs be one of the sorting factors means that it will be very
easy to search for information within a regional area. Area specific message boards can sort
specifically by location and install the widget on their site to create a feed of news stories all
based with in their geographic location.

How is your idea innovative? (new or different from what already exists)  *
(750 characters)
Google news compiles all the current stories, and you can use google reader to sort for it, but it
doesn’t determine the news based on the trends of internet conversations. If we are looking for a
greater distribution of the news, we may as well provide them with the stories they are talking
about. Another possible side effect could be to provide an incentive to news organizations to pick
up on the conversations and create a more interactive news environment.

What experience do you or your organization have to successfully develop this project?  
(1600 characters)

I am a journalism Masters student at Michigan State University. A frequent topic in several of

my classes has been the distribution of the news and potential methods of creating a more
informed public using open source technology. I also have a great deal of experience with social
media. In the winter of 2009 I worked with a few Gold’s Gyms in New Jersey to integrate their
social media with their marketing strategy. I created and integrated a youtube channel, a twitter
account, a blogger page and a facebook page among other applications. My experience with all
of these applications provides a solid background education. In addition, I do not have a great
deal of tech knowledge. As essentially a layman in charge of the produce, yet someone who
consumes a lot of news, I can provide the perspective of many of the target user base and
therefore offer suggestions that will improve its ease of use.