Citizen guardianship over public-interest information channels is essential to democratic debate and socially responsible media policy change. Independent, noncommercial and community media are struggling to survive while multi-billion dollar industries grow more powerful from the cables they run under the public roads and the licenses they use to broadcast on public airwaves, fighting off public obligations at every step. How can we create an environment where diverse media thrive? This is about how and what we communicate. Today's emerging information technologies have the potential to connect the world as never before. New media tools enable us to share solutions, strengthen cultures, and create new levels of accountability and transparency in governments and corporations, as well as, among social change organizations. THIS PROJECT could make local, regional national, and international media advocacy activities accessible to anyone interested in holding information gatekeepers in check. It would provide concerned citizens with 1) tools to feedback to broadcast, cable, satellite, radio and internet content decision-makers, 2) tools for messaging policy makers, and 3) motivation to transform individual viewers/receivers/"consumers" into participating media rights advocates by provide opportunities to get involved. THE PROJECT would also address a pressing need among media advocacy players in the U.S. Accessing information about partnerships, collaborations, new initiatives, etc. is klunky and time-consuming. Bridge-building between and among advocates across regions and issues is timely, if not urgent in today's media landscape. The widest gulf exists between grassroots and local media justice organizations and Washington D.C. Policy change efforts. The connection between scholarly research and community advocacy is developing, yet improving knowledge of and access to organizations would expedite productivity (and therefore, positive policy change). THIS PROJECT could minimally, be the gateway to more efficient networking, alliance and partnership initiatives and collaboration. Funders and/or investors would use the service to gain pertinent information about media issues or potential grantees. This mashup would help strengthen media movements, and ultimately be the e-support of efforts that preserve the free expression of diverse perspectives.

VoteRightNow is about changing the way our democracy works, right now! It's simple but elegant, really. Viral voting will sweep the land as the voters refuse to wait out time consuming and overpriced campaigns. THE PEOPLE will instead opt to instantly elect a candidate with a basic online or mobile phone button/code that asks them to answer one easy question: "Who do you want to be elected...candidate X,Y, or Z?" When political office holders are not coming through, instant recall buttons can similarly allow any and all voters to virtually throw the bum out with another press of the button and the instant tallying of local, regional, national, or international results. The more people that participate on VoteRightNow, the more powerful and accurate a tool it becomes. And the more powerful it becomes, the less usefull long, drawn out election campaign cycles and expensive formal voting become. VoteRightNow saves everyone time and money, and helps to foster greater democratic participation in the process.

If the project is successful, American voters will learn the impact that U.S. foreign policy decisions have on people around the world, on a general and personal level. They will also see how U.S. democracy is perceived in contentious countries like Iran and China.

The aim of this project is to expose American voters to the impact that their decisions, and their elected government’s decisions, have on people globally, using user generated video, news video, feeds and statistics. U.S. voters will also become aware of how the 2008 U.S. presidential election is being covered by television outlets in other countries. This knowledge will help make voters more aware of the importance of their decision and the empowerment they gain through participation in the democratic process. It will also bring them closer to individuals outside of the U.S. by allowing them to make a personal connection through video dialogue.

The project may be a great first step toward a permanent and growing mashup of international news and reports on a variety of global issues beyond the election. Future iterations of What the World is Saying – Human Rights, Development Aid, the Environment?

The goal of MyPollingPlace is simple: to make it easier for people to exercise their civic rights by serving as a quick and easy source of information on where and how to vote.

Many people have good intentions to vote that can be hampered by small but significant obstacles: they can't easily figure out where they should go to vote, or how to get there. They don't know what type of identification they'll need to cast a ballot. Or they're intimidated by a lack of knowledge of the voting machines or ballot format they'll have to use at the polls.

Surprisingly, as of now there isn't a website out there that brings all this information together for voters.

The high turnout throughout this year's presidential primaries indicates that the fall elections may see very healthy turnout levels, including a sizable number of new voters heading to the polls. An informational site like MyPollingPlace.com could do much to help make the process as easy and painless as possible and thus encourage civic participation.

Writers have always written, not knowing about who or where their readers are. This mashup will show where the readers are coming from, who read a writer's article, or where the readers come from, who care about the same topics as any tag in the system.

We will use zip codes, which we have on record, for our members, or IP address, for non-registered visitors, to map where readers of a specific article come from. Since articles are also tagged, we can pull tag contact data for people as well, and map tags based on who's visited from where-- for any article.

When writers know more about where their readers come from, that could/will change the way they think about their readers and could change how they write.

This could have a powerful effect upon editorial decisions too. Since thousands of tags will be easily checked for how they "map", it will be possible to asses reach of the site and editorial policy in new ways.

Writing, news, Op-eds, the media-- they are essential elements of democracy. Understanding which aspects of the writing are reaching WHERE, for each article, or groups of articles, or by the author-- all of these should be easily pulled together using the system we've already built for managing content. Even on more local levels, if we can tap the power of google analytics to pull IP info and map it to local, county or state levels, this could be powerful, since we also tag our content by locale. For example, if a writer writing on water pollution discovers that the lower part of a county is seeing the articles, but not the upper level, and a river runs through the county, that could easily help the writer identify where further outreach is needed.