RoxburyMatters.org April 17, 2007 Zakiya Alake and Joe Christo

2 RoxburyMatters.org Mission Statement  RoxburyMatters.org is a community-driven effort to provide neighborhoods in Boston that are traditionally underserved by mainstream media, particularly Roxbury, with an engaging ultra- local news, events, and information source. The website will consist of five sections – News, Articles and Opinions; Community Calendar; Community Resource Links; Peacemaking Resource Center; and Contests/Polls. The News, Articles and Opinions section will be driven by an extensive Citizen Journalism Project, with assistance from the Center for Urban and Regional Policy and Northeastern University’s School of Journalism.

3 How Will the Citizen Journalism Project Operate? Members of the community (citizen reporters) will be able to submit fresh content, including news, event summaries, general interest articles and opinions in topic areas such as education, parenting, culture, transportation, sports, and health. These postings will be filtered through the managing editors.

4 How Will the Citizen Journalism Project Operate? Continued The managing editors will be Northeastern University School of Journalism graduate or advanced undergraduates students who have an interest in community development, community activism, the social sciences, or community-based journalism. –The students will be involved in the project through either co-op, an internship, work-study, or directed study. They will work with the citizen reporters to edit and fine-tune the content and will maintain the News, Articles and Opinions section of the website, along with CURP staff.

5 How Will the Citizen Journalism Project Operate? Continued This relationship will provide more local news to individuals in the community surrounding Northeastern University than traditional media currently does. It will also help School of Journalism students learn and apply community-based and online journalism techniques.

6 How Will the Citizen Journalism Project Operate? Continued Room for original reporting and articles from the students themselves will be a feature of the website as well. There will be an element of direct collaboration between the managing editors and citizen reporters. (See “What Has Been Learned” section.) All submissions to the website will be guided by a detailed yet liberal set of guidelines and decency standards. An editorial board consisting of one RoxburyMatters.org staff member, one CURP staff member, one School of Journalism professor, three members of the community, and one graduate student will oversee the operations of this section.

7 How Will the Rest of the Website Operate? Administrative and backend support for other sections of the website will be provided by community groups with workforce training programs (i.e. Senior Community Employment Corp, Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center, Metro Boston Alive). –These community staff positions will be responsible for outreach to community groups and residents, updating the Community Calendar, Community Resource Links, Peacemaking Resource Center, and Contests/Polls, and follow-up calls that keep citizen reporters engaged.

8 Website Structure & Design The homepage will have a menu at the top of the page that will link into information about the site, and a sidebar that will link into the following sections: –News, Articles and Opinions Business, Civic Life, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Environment, Food & Recipes, Health, Housing & Transportation, Parenting, Politics, Science & Technology, Spirituality, Sports, Voices & Opinion –Community Calendar –Community Resource Links –Peacemaking Resource Center –Contests and Polls

9 Website Structure & Design Continued A simple, attractive, well-organized homepage with a clear mission statement will engage our readers. The homepage will always consist of 5-6 selected stories and/or photos of interest, chosen by the managing editors, and will be updated on a continual basis. Each story will have room for follow-up discussion by readers. The website is currently being designed, pro-bono, by Heshan Berents-Weeramuni of amb.idextro.us graphica.

10 Training RoxburyMatters.org, CURP and the School of Journalism will begin the collaboration by hosting a Citizen Journalism Boot Camp in the Fall of 2007 for residents, who will become the citizen reporters. The training sessions, taught by CURP staff and School of Journalism graduate students, will be two hours long, once per week, for four weeks. We will be aiming to recruit 20 citizen reporters.

11 What Has Been Learned from MassAgenda.com and Roxbury.com? 1.The dependability of the citizen reporters will be crucial, but we should not ask too much from them and risk them becoming disenchanted with the project. 2.The process of researching and producing content for the web needs to be a tiered process, with good leadership. 3.Although the group of 20 citizen reporters will serve as the core information generators for the website, submissions from throughout the community (which will adhere to a set of guidelines) will be strongly encouraged and appreciated. There will be no exclusivity to the site.

12 What Has Been Learned from MassAgenda.com and Roxbury.com Continued 4.The strengths of the site, especially early on in the project, will be the Community Calendar, the Community Resource Links, and the Peacemaking Resource Center. Building reliability with our readers through constant updates to these sections will encourage more community involvement and word-of-mouth marketing. 5.As mentioned before, a simple, attractive, well-organized homepage with a clear mission statement will engage our readers. Too many websites these days can be cluttered and disorienting; RoxburyMatters.org won’t be. 6.Success will depend on our ability to be flexible and grow fluidly. We will do a few things, and do them well, before moving on.

13 Timeline Establish Infrastructure for Community Calendar – February/March 2007 Establish Community Resource Links section – February/March 2007 Establish Peacemaking Resource Center section – February/March 2007 Community Outreach Events/Citizen Reporter Recruitment – February/March 2007 Design of Website – Will be complete in May 2007 Citizen Journalism Boot Camp – June 2007 Launch of Website – June 2007 Community Staff Arrives – August 2007 Managing Editors Arrive – January 2008

14 Budget (2-year) We currently have three different working budgets to cover operating expenses, supplies, outreach materials, and event costs. We are in the process of researching and applying for various small grants via the AGM database, The Boston Foundation, Hyams Foundation, and Haymarket People’s Fund. We are also planning a small fundraiser. $5,000/$1,500/$0 Should any grants and/or fundraising exceed $5,000, our first set of priorities will be investing in further community outreach, a “monthly roundup” print edition to be distributed to local libraries, and stipends for community staff members.

15 Collaborations/ Other Initiatives We have a contact list of over 100 interested organization and agencies. –There is the potential for a collaboration with Northeastern University Business School for a non-profit business plan. –Preliminary discussions about legal services have taken place with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society’s Clinical Program in Cyberlaw and the Center for Citizen Media A weekly one-hour RoxburyMatters show on Boston Neighborhood Network television, where Zakiya is a producer, is currently being planned

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