Many hands make light work.
If there is one adage that we at ePluribus Media have taken to heart, it is that one. In fact, the evolution of the Gannon case, the growth of ePluribus Media and the future of Community (Open Source) Journalism itself rests on the foundation of active community involvement. This is true of the investigations, the stories and organizational operation.
The journalism paradigm is changing. We (ePluribus Media) are in the process of building a new kind of Media organization. One that runs on the energy of the community, not owned by corporations and big business. Stories and investigations originating with you, the people. FYI, we are a non-profit, 501(c)4 organization.
more below....
However, this kind of undertaking has expenses. To date we have been grabbing money from our own pockets to cover our expenses: to mention a few, incorporation fees, FOIA requests and various software expenses. Now that our web site is approaching the ready stage, we'll have some more serious hosting and maintenance expenses. So, to meet these financial needs, we are announcing our initial funding effort.
ePluribus Media's Incredibly Ambitious April Fund Raising Drive and Community Building Megathon
Okay, we want to make this fun, easy and affordable for everyone. Here's the plan. We are going to use the idea behind Many hands make light work. In this case, we want to embrace Many small donations make a successful drive.
Here's the challenge. In the next month we want to find 4000 people who want to make a difference by donating ten dollars. "Ten Bucks" toward the future of Community Journalism. Of course, if anyone wants to pitch in a few more dollars, that's fine.
We are asking you, our supporters to do three simple things:
1. Donate ten dollars (if you can't afford this, skip to number two)
2. Put a link to our contributions page in all your blog and email signatures (I'll supply the link below)
3. Ask five friends to do numbers one and two
Easy as One Two Three. And like community journalism, this effort belongs to you. So if you have inventive ways to spread the word about One Two and Three, please go for it. Diaries on other blogs, references to our drive in local publications, broadcast e-mails...these are all extra things we can do to find our 4000 people.
We'll be keeping track and reporting back to you and let you know how it's going. If you have another blog, ask your members to acknowledge such and we'll keep track of how much your blog raises.
If you have any other suggestions, let's hear them. Post them in the thread below.
Here's the donations link you can copy and paste into your signature field found in your user preferences area (add the html stuff at the beginning and the end of the link to make it work. I had to exclude them because it creates the actual link, arrgghhh. If you have trouble, email me):
"http://renewalnow.org/ePluribusMedia_donations.html"> I donated to ePluribus Media. Please join me. Click here to support citizen journalism!
Here's the link you can add to your email signature preferences:
I donated to ePluribus Media. Please join me. Click below to support citizen journalism!
http://renewalnow.org/ePluribusMedia_donation.html
Thank you
You can begin with number One here:
ePluribus Media
Also, if you would like to volunteer to help build ePluribus Media, email me at NYBri2 at yahoo dot com.
We are excited about the support we have received so far and are looking forward to your participation. This is, after all, your movement.
Please recommend this diary so we can reach as many kossacks as possible.
ePluribus Media
Update [2005-3-30 20:27:18 by ePluribus Media]: I've been reading some of the posts and let me add a bit about who we are for those who haven't seen SusanG's diaries:
e Pluribus Media is a cooperative of citizen
volunteers dedicated to researching issues of common concern, exposing government propaganda and
corruption, and encouraging the highest standards of ethics and journalism. That's our mission statement.
Clearly, the journalism paradigm is changing. ePluribus Media will play an important role in its evolution. We are an enthusiastic, open-source community of researchers, writers, editors, technical experts, teachers, organizers, and activists.
Our work is generated by our community of citizen journalists. We are formally committed to the principles enumerated in the Statement of Shared Purpose and the Citizen's Bill of Journalism Rights composed by the Committee of Concerned Journalists. If you'd like to read our ethical
standards, visit:
here
We are developing an alternative, non-profit media outlet that endeavors to provide unfiltered, "people generated" news and analysis of the
highest ethical standards, focused on propaganda and the media.
We have an incredibel web site in the making that will serve these functions and will be very unique in how it works and how it supports community journalism
Update [2005-3-30 20:35:9 by ePluribus Media]: For those who don't know who ePluribus Media is, our work has been mainly resluted in SusanG's diaries, the most recent one being J.D. Guckert/Jeff Gannon: These Are Your Lives!. I, NYBri, and many, many others have founded this organization. We have a groundbreaking web site being prepared that will hopefully be a community journalist's dream. FYI, SusanG will have another story tomorrow and will post it under the ePluribus Media screen name. Please subscribe so you don't miss it. Thanks for all your support. It's what makes us carry on.