Facebook Application for Personal or Community Online Newspaper

We encourage users to post events happening in the community to the community events group on https://www.drupal.org.
Dave Cohen's picture

Edit 07 August 2008 This proposal has been passed along to Knight Foundation for consideration. http://drupal.org/node/292583

This project will create and host a Facebook Application which enables individuals and groups to publish online "newspapers". In doing so, it will contribute code to Drupal modules allowing anyone to host a similar venture.

The online newspaper we envision allows timely publication of text, images and media; similar to already available blogging sites, but emulating a widely understood newspaper model. Specifically, our model will support:

  • Multiple user roles including Editor, Contributor, Subscriber.
  • Workflow allowing Contributors to submit content that Editors revise before publishing.
  • Subscriber-only content and content for the public at large.
  • Configurable sections to the newspaper, i.e. national, local, sports, etc.
  • Configurable page layout showing headlines from various sections.

By hosting a Facebook application, the barriers to entry will be particularly low. Anyone can create their own newspaper and collaborate with others to produce content. We envision use cases including but not limited to:

  • A high school or college newspaper.
  • A family newspaper announcing weddings, reunions, etc.
  • A little league team or sports tournament.
  • Tenants in an apartment building or neighborhood.
  • Any small or specialized community.

We believe hosting a Facebook application will make this project easy to use. However, we do not want to limit ourselves to the Facebook platform only. So we intend to make all our content and features available outside of Facebook as well. To use a hypothetical example (we don't have the newspaper.com domain) a browser visting apps.facebook.com/newspaper/paper/my_news would show my_news in a Facebook application, while another browser visiting newspaper.com/paper/my_news would see the same paper in regular HTML pages. In the future, the same content could be made available over Open Social (social networks other than Facebook).

How does your proposal meet the stated goals of the Knight Drupal Initiative program?: 

Our proposed project will be a powerful tool for digital publishing, centered around the free exchange of information and ideas and allowing people to improve their communities both local and virtual. We believe we are pushing the barriers to entry as low as possible by exposing the tool as a Facebook Application. In doing so, we allow relatively unsophisticated users to publish without the need for hosting or installing software; they need only access to the internet, possibly from a shared computer.

We also provide the tool as open source software. This allows advanced users to take complete control of the tool, host it themselves and potentially improve upon it.

Development would directly benefit the Drupal for Facebook project, which is promising but not yet mature. During the course of this project we will extend and improve that project; making it easier to develop any Facebook application on Drupal, and to expose any content already in Drupal on Facebook.

Where possible we will leverage third-party modules. For example, we expect each of our "newspapers" to be implemented as an Organic Group. As good Drupal citizens we will contribute back any improvements or upgrades made to such modules.

While we intend to host a branded application, we also plan to contribute back the code that makes the application possible. This will include an install profile with each of the third-party modules our application uses. Thus a sophisticated user would be able to host her own collaborative newspaper site and Facebook application, and develop her own look, feel and branding. Another sophisticated user could use our Facebook App as an example to build their own completely different one.

How long will your project take to complete?: 

We expect our application to be up and running 6 months after acceptance of this proposal.

As a hosted application, we expect development to continue even after the initial go-live date. We hope that ongoing development and support will be funded via advertising or subscription-based premium services.

How will you implement and distribute your project?: 

Our plans include hosting a branded version of this project. So most users will access the project easily. Either they add the application to an existing facebook account, or they sign up directly on the application homepage (URL to be determined). These users would need only access to the internet to use the service. More sophisticated users would access the project's source code via drupal.org's download pages.

This project is led by Dave Cohen, who has been contributing to Drupal for 3 years and is also founder of the Drupal for Facebook project.

The rest of the team is to be determined.

What is your total budget estimate and how much funding are you requesting: 

The following approximate estimate accounts for 2 developers working part-time for 6 months. Also a creative resource to work on branding, look and feel; documentation; some marketing and PR; and hosting for the first year.

2 developers @ $100/hour, 300 hours each = $60,000
1 media writer @ $65/hour, 100 hours = $6,500
1 creative @ $85/hour, 40 hours = $3,400
Marketing and advertising approximately $5,000
Hosting for first year up to $2,400

Total approximate estimate: $77,300.

Comments

Benefits to Drupal

Dave Cohen's picture

When started drafting this proposal, the form had a section to describe how the project would benefit Drupal. This has been removed from the form. Here's what I intended to write...

Development would directly benefit the Drupal for Facebook project, which is promising but not yet mature. During the course of this project we will extend and improve that project; making it easier to develop any Facebook application on Drupal, and to expose any content already in Drupal on Facebook.

Where possible we will leverage third-party modules. For example, we expect each of our "newspapers" to be implemented as an Organic Group. As good Drupal citizens we will contribute back any improvements or upgrades made to such modules.

While we intend to host a branded application, we also plan to contribute back the code that makes the application possible. This will include an install profile with each of the third-party modules our application uses. Thus a sophisticated user would be able to host her own collaborative newspaper site and Facebook application, and develop her own look, feel and branding. Another sophisticated user could use our Facebook App as an example to build their own completely different one.

Benefits

agentrickard's picture

If you want to insert that language, put it under "How does your proposal meet the stated goals of the Knight Drupal Initiative program?"

Since benefit to Drupal is one of the program goals, we collapsed two or three questions into this section.

--
http://ken.therickards.com/

Thanks, Ken. I did just

Dave Cohen's picture

Thanks, Ken. I did just that.

Check out the NewsCloud Facebook CMS Framework

newscloud-gdo's picture

You may be interested in the NewsCloud open source mini-CMS framework which offers some of what you are proposing here.
http://blog.newscloud.com/2008/03/open-source-fac.html

Demos here
http://apps.facebook.com/newsdemo
http://apps.facebook.com/northwest

There is also a Drupal plugin (beta) for the NewsCloud framework - which is here
http://drupal.org/node/219425

Thanks for those links

Dave Cohen's picture

That's great to know about. I saw your application for support of the newsroom module, but did not know about their facebook application until now. I'll look it over.

I can tell from a quick scan that what I'm proposing would be easier for average folks to use. While they provide code you need to host your own newsroom app, I'm suggesting a single newspaper app which anyone could use simply by adding it to their facebook profile.

Probably best not to start from scratch

newscloud-gdo's picture

The Facebook framework is open source. The NewsCloud Web Services API is available and open source. I don't think customizing the current Facebook app to suit what you want would be as difficult as starting from scratch. Let me know if you want to chat about it.

newscloud-gdo's picture

This may already do what you're talking about ...
http://apps.facebook.com/newscloud

Users install the app. Click publish to journal on any story - and the stories get published to a personal clippings journal page on Facebook and to their mini-feed. With some reworking, it could probably be adjusted to exactly the look and feel/experience you are trying to create.

Posted stories and comments are also mirrored to NewsCloud and thus available in Drupal through the Drupal Newsroom module.

Here's basically what I imagine

Dave Cohen's picture

I want a user to add my app. Then they can create their own newspaper. They can customize exactly what sections appear. They can also grant other users permission to be a contributor.

So for example lets say Alice Smith wants to create a newspaper for the Smith family. She adds the newspaper app, creates a newspaper called the Smith Family Gazette. Then she defines the primary sections, perhaps Weddings, Births, and Reunions. Then she might make Bob Smith and Charlie Smith into Contributors or Editors. And everyone else in the family a subscriber. And so on...

Also, I'm trying to build out the Drupal for Facebook project, which already exists, into a more powerful component capable of building any sort of Facebook app. So this would be of benefit to Drupal developers trying to build things other than newspapers, too.

Posted stories and comments are also mirrored to NewsCloud and thus available in Drupal through the Drupal Newsroom module.

That is cool.

BinnyG's picture

My project got side tracked due to my day job(connectedweddings.com), but we are developing a similar product. I would say 60%-70%(?) of the development is done. We let users create news paper sites for their vicinity. We have a design to bubble content from low level vicinity up the ladder. One difference being our news papers sites are hierarchical. Unfortunately I do not have a working copy for demonstration but I might work on it if time permits.

Letting users create their own news paper sites has a great potential. I will vote 5.

Rated a 4

bonobo's picture

I voted this application a 4.

My only real concern is around the focus on Facebook, as FB has a spotty record with privacy issues, and, for organizations using Facebook, they are subsequently tied to FaceBook.

I like the idea of an easily created News site, for all the obvious reasons. For the sake of end users, though, I'd want to see some of the benefits of using an open source tool (like control over data and control over user privacy) be given to end users.

Are there any plans with this project to allow for data portabiliity?


FunnyMonkey
Tools for Teachers

Thanks for voting, Bill

Dave Cohen's picture

My only real concern is around the focus on Facebook, as FB has a spotty record with privacy issues, and, for organizations using Facebook, they are subsequently tied to FaceBook.

This project would be built on Drupal for Facebook. That means it would be hosted independently of facebook. It would have its own presence at its own URL. On that site it would be similar to this site, groups.drupal.org, although themed differently.

At the same time, it would be available via Facebook canvas pages. So a user who prefers to stay within Facebook never has to leave it. A user who doesn't like Facebook never has to visit it. Both users have access to the same content and can contribute to the same newspapers. I think exposing a Facebook app makes this accessable to wide range of users, including very un-sophisticated ones, and that's one of the Knight Foundations goals.

For an example of what I'm talking about, compare these pages:
http://apps.facebook.com/drupalforfacebook/forum
http://www.drupalforfacebook.org/forum
See the similarities, both in the URLs and the content? It's all hosted by Drupal and not tied to Facebook in any negative way, just available via Facebook in addition.

I like the idea of an easily created News site, for all the obvious reasons. For the sake of end users, though, I'd want to see some of the benefits of using an open source tool (like control over data and control over user privacy) be given to end users.

Again, the plan is to release the tool as open source. And also as a hosted site because that makes the barrier to entry a lot lower. But an advanced user (probably anyone reading this) could take the code, modify it and host their own.

f8

Dave Cohen's picture

BinnyG, Hey I saw ConnectedWeddings at the f8 show. Looks great. Are any of your products open source?

You may have seen the Hackathon at f8. Drupal for Facebook was awarded one of the prizes.

I saw your website and

BinnyG's picture

I saw your website and congratulations for winning prize at f8 conference. I am lead developer on Connectedweddings but for sure is not open source. It is being developed for one of our clients and it is built on java technologies. Thanks and I am glad you liked it. I own a drupal project that I mentioned before and since it is not completed I haven't thought about open sourcing it. I might consider it when it is in a descent shape, or if I can pull some free time time I would love to contribute to your project. But for now I am too busy to even check this thread :-). Oh by the way I just started using your facebook module and it looks great. Keep up the good work.

Benefit to Drupal

Dave Cohen's picture

I see this proposal as advancing both the Knight Foundation's goals, and the Drupal project. Perhaps it's not immediately obvious, so here's how I see it...

When I first saw the Facebook API and canvas pages I thought, "cool, a canvas page is just another theme. I'll make an FBML theme and boom - I'll have a Facebook Application." Turns out, not so simple. Drupal, it turns out, does all sorts of things with the assumption that content lives at just one URL. In the brave new world of social networks and the semantic web, that is not the case.

Drupal for Facebook is running into these issues because it renders content both within facebook and without. At times, Drupal gets in the way. For example by acknowledging just one $base_url, by caching input formats, by assuming users go by just one name. Facebook is not the only integration that runs into these problems, either. So it's my hope that advancing this project will help solve some of these problems.

Also, for other Drupal sites, not related to newspapers, Facebook integration might be a desirable thing. This proposal would advance Drupal for Facebook. Make it easier to use and install. Keep it up-to-date with Facebook's API which until now has been changing very rapidly. I can't even think of all the ways existing Drupal site could use this.

Finally, there are a lot of Facebook app developers who have never heard of Drupal or considered using it. Just like Drupal is excellent for building conventional websites, it is well suited to build Facebook apps. So there's a large audience of potential Drupal users out there, and advancing Drupal for Facebook will make it more available to them.

Constantly Requested

Alex UA's picture

I have to say that anything that helps push forward Drupal-Facebook integration is a very worthy project. Not only is this functionality constantly requested by any client that's used the term "Web 2.0" it is the single best way to reach people under 30 (or maybe 35) around. If you want to talk to "the masses" you have to go to where they congregate and talk to them via the medium they use, and there's no argument that Facebook is that space and medium for the younger set (and increasingly the older set).

I also really like the idea that this will help not only push forward the main objectives of the proposal, but will make it easier for other developers to push the envelope for content delivery on facebook in general.

Alex Urevick-Ackelsberg
ZivTech: Illuminating Technology

Alex Urevick-Ackelsberg
ZivTech: Illuminating Technology

Interesting vote

agentrickard's picture

I think this will be a challenging proposal to review. It has support, but it also mirrors some other work being done. Some community coordination may be crucial here, otherwise the project could get hung up.

The branded and hosted service is also an interesting challenge -- we are basically talking about giving some backing to a business proposal. Am I right in thinking so?

I do not see either of these issues as deal-breakers, but they do highlight some of the potential conflicts that the grant process introduces, especially if you have others working on similar projects.

So, I think my general feeling is that the more open the end product, the better this is for Drupal. I wonder, too, if this might not be tweaked to be an 'export publishing' framework that, in its initial inception, supports publishing to FaceBook, but also provides APIs for other applications.

--
http://ken.therickards.com/

You're right, Ken

Dave Cohen's picture

The branded and hosted service is also an interesting challenge -- we are basically talking about giving some backing to a business proposal. Am I right in thinking so?

I am proposing a business in that I'd like this hosted application to be self-sustaining. Either by placing ads or charging users for the storage/bandwidth they use. I've put the open source part (Drupal for Facebook, mostly) with the business part (newspaper app) in this proposal because I think the hosted application lowers the barrier of entry. Just releasing Drupal for Facebook does not make it easy for the masses to use it. And the specific application I propose, newspapers, is I think in line with what the Knight Foundation would like. I'm open to other ideas. My goal is not to compete with other products, especially open-source ones; although I don't think competition is necessarily a bad thing.

There's a question in the FAQ, "Can for-profit ventures submit proposals?" I took that to mean I could propose something like this. Now I wonder if that meant something else.

I wonder, too, if this might not be tweaked to be an 'export publishing' framework that, in its initial inception, supports publishing to FaceBook, but also provides APIs for other applications.

I'd like to see Drupal-hosted content published everywhere: regular HTML (and RSS, etc), Facebook, Open Social, Second Life, and so on... There are some ways Drupal can be changed to make this easier. So far, Drupal for Facebook has tried to use features baked into Drupal as much as possible. For example, the FBML used for canvas pages is a Drupal theme; events are written to the Facebook news feed via Actions. In other words, I'm trying to apply Drupal concepts to the Facebook platform rather than invent Facebook-specific ways to do things. Hopefully the other destinations (OpenSocial, etc) will be able to do things the same way.

For profit

agentrickard's picture

You certainly can submit for profit proposals -- the statement means exactly that. I still think that having a business opportunity as part of the proposal makes your job a little harder, and want you to be ready if people challenge you on those grounds.

But it does not disqualify the proposal in any way. Sorry if I gave that impression.

--
http://ken.therickards.com/

You have my vote

plastictabs's picture

For me, the potential success of the Drupal for Facebook project boils down to a few really simple ideas.

If you peruse TechCrunch or Mashable for 30 seconds, you can't help but realize that every major content publisher/media company/marketing exec is struggling to define their Facebook strategy. We know the decentralized web is here. Pair that with the fact that Drupal is a major player in the content management space and you have some vastly larger implications than a simple hosted application.

Thinking in terms of a self-publishing application platform supported by any number of major Drupal users (TeamSugar, SonyBMG, etc.) makes me believe that this project deserves some serious backing.

Lastly, there are several commercial platforms that do a handful of things, including self-publishing... (Kickapps, OneSite, Clearspring, Widgetbox, Gigya, etc.) but all have to integrate into a host website. With DFF, I believe the potential to have in-house publishing/reporting a much greater payoff for marketing/tech teams collectively and is one less technology everyone has to get familiar with.

I definitely vote to see this come to full fruition, though we all know that regardless, Dave won't stop until it's done :)

Budget

agentrickard's picture

I think my only concern here is budget, since there are working prototypes.

That and the API concept mentioned above that makes this less about FaceBook and more about remote publishing.

I say 3 on this, but I am hard to please.

--
http://ken.therickards.com/

Remote publishing

BioALIEN's picture

agentrickard was spot on in the above comment. For this proposal to stand a chance, I expect a strong API with some good plugins for Facebook, Myspace, Bebo and any other place where Drupal content can be published remotely.

Somehow, Services API springs to mind when I read the details of the above. Because of the above, I've given this a "proposal needs review". However, once the proposal takes steps to include places other than facebook via a flexible API then I would've given it a 4!


Dee :: iScene Drupal Agency

Allowing Drupal content to

gallamine's picture

Allowing Drupal content to be accessed/viewed/manipulated using Facebook would be an amazing resource. Think of all the millions of people that could be easily exposed to the content on your Drupal site. It would facilitate word-of-mouth promotion to an already huge user base. This gets fives stars from me!

nodiac's picture

The need for Drupal / Facebook integration is only going to grow. I'd like to throw my support behind Dave and this project. His work has already benefitted Drupal a great deal and the community will immediately feel the impact of these improvements.

Kraken Digital Media & Technology
Founder
http://www.larks.la  
Droplabs
Robot Coordinator
http://droplabs.net  
Greater Los Angeles Drupal
Organizer, Dragonslayer
http://drupal.la &n

fbstarter.com

Sydnie X's picture

Beware of this websites that is out to hunt for your e-mail accounts and password. Be careful and don’t just trust at once with the sites. Look out for fbstarter.com. The website fbstarter.com is a password mining scam, set up to look exactly like Facebook, but they're really a site that's after your e-mail account and passwords. How does it works? It says that you get an email message claiming that someone has a message for you on Facebook. You open it and log in to a page that looks exactly like Facebook, and then – presto – they have your information, and you have been phished. So far there hasn't been a lot of damage, no credit cards used nor payday loans needed to contain the damage, but a lot of people are understandably not amused, and a lot of people would use short term loans to get rid of the parasitic fbstarter site http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2009/04/30/scam-watch-fbstarterc...