Drupal and the Knight Foundation agree that open source
digital publishing can enable powerful agents of transformation
in their respective communities.
Together, we are working to improve communities by providing
an open democratic platform in the digital age.
We provide funding for grant proposals that achieve our mutual
goals by using and improving the Drupal platform.
Applications are currently closed.
Knight Drupal Initiative closing for 2008, program to reopen during DrupalCON DC
When the Knight Foundation announced the Knight Drupal Initiative at DrupalCON Boston, we entered a partnership with the Drupal community.
Our goal was to establish an open, ongoing grant application process for the purpose of creating better open source web applications.
The last six months have been phenomenal. Too successful, in fact. We currently have six proposals under funding review, with over $600,000 (USD) in potential grants for Drupal projects.
Read moreKnight Drupal Initiative monthly proposal review -- 6 November 2008
We will have our final review meeting for KDI 2008 on Thursday, 6 November 2008 at 15:00 EST (20:00 UTC).
Note time adjustment for the end of U.S. daylight savings time.
The meeting will be held in IRC #drupal-dojo on irc.freenode.net. (See http://drupal.org/irc for information about using IRC.) We will meet for 1:30 with the following agenda:
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Help visually impaired people publish online through documentation and working examples of friendly Web sites
Help visually impaired people take control of their own Web sites by helping them administer the sites and create their own content.
Pick a specific community site for visually impaired people and convert the site to Drupal using the best available practices.
Document what works and set up demonstration sites to show the techniques.
Document what does not work, set up demonstration sites to test changes to Drupal, and feed information back to Drupal developers including theme developers.
Chat log for October 2, 2009 IRC meeting
This is a copy of the IRC chat log for the KDI meeting in #drupal-dojo on Oct. 2, 2009.
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Formal usability testing of Drupal in 2009
Edit: This proposal has been approved by community vote as of 06 November 2008. See http://drupal.org/node/331079
Read moreKnight Drupal Initiative monthly proposal review -- 2 October 2008
We will have our monthly review meeting on Thursday, 2 October 2008 at 15:00 EDT (19:00 UTC).
The meeting will be held in IRC #drupal-dojo on irc.freenode.net. (See http://drupal.org/irc for information about using IRC.) We will meet for 1:30 with the following agenda:
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Open Invitation to the Alliance for Community Media Conference. October 23-25, 2008 Denver, CO
Recent recipients of a Knight NewsChallenge Award, Denver Open Media is hosting the Western Regional Alliance for Community Media Conference, Oct 23-25, 2008 in Denver, CO. We will be showcasing the Drupal Modules being developed to empower communities through Public Access TV stations and Community Technology Centers. The conference will be highlighting the new media technologies and efforts that allow access centers to operate on a streamlined, user-driven model.
Read moreProposal review requirements
In the current draft of the proposal review guide, we set the following standard:
[Items in brackets are subject to change.]
At the end of each [monthly] review period, applications with [10 or more] votes and a rating of [4] or higher will be passed to Knight Foundation for funding review.When we were first starting, hitting this threshold was often a challenge. Now that we have some momentum, we have some larger and more visible projects. Do we need to revise the rating standard?
Read moreWhat minimum average rating should a proposal have to be considered for review?
How many votes should an application have to be considered for review?
Distributed Micro-Blogging
Edit, October 2 -- This proposal has been passed along to the Knight Foundation for consideration -- http://drupal.org/node/316403 End Edit
This is a proposal for funding the implementation of the OpenMicroBlogging specification as a Drupal module, in addition to the creation of an install profile that makes setting up a distributed micro-blog easy.
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Sustainable Development, Installation and Maintenance through Open Contributions
Proposal
We propose a sustainable solution for Development, Installation and Maintenance of Content Management Systems through Open Contributions. Specifically, this proposal is for building a module for the Drupal Platform called Open Contributions.
Overview
Instead or charging Universities for the installation of a CMS upfront, and monthly payments for maintenance, we propose another model:
Chat transcript, IRC Meeting, September 11, 2008
Chat transcript of the meeting discussing and reviewing proposals.
This transcript is cut and pasted from the chat log
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Decisionmaking API & Consensus Module
Edit, October 2 -- This proposal has been passed along to the Knight Foundation for consideration -- http://drupal.org/node/316407 End Edit
Proposal Overview
This project aims to create and implement a flexible framework for group decisionmaking processes. The proposal has two technical components and one implementation component.
Technical components
- Creation of a Decisionmaking API, an abstracted, pluggable system designed to manage any form of group decisionmaking.
- Implement the Decisionmaking API by creating a Consensus module, which will model the formal consensus decisionmaking process.
Implementation component
- Formal consensus is an intricate process, and is difficult to successfully execute even when in person. Inculcating software with best practices developed over decades by consensus practitioners will require its own, unique testbed. We'll provide such a testbed, and report back to Knight/the community on it.
Drupal Learning Resource Center
Edit 2 October 2008 -- this proposal is on hold until it can be clarified with regard to the questions below. End Edit
The Drupal Learning Resource Center (DLRC) will be a vibrant hub of information and exchange of ideas about Drupal.
There are two main goals of the Drupal Learning Resource Center (DLRC).
The first immediate goal is to create a freely distributed, open source digital publishing platform for teaching and learning about Drupal. The goal is to make Drupal accessible and easy to learn for individuals at all levels.
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Grant-Making System
Edit: This proposal has been removed from consideration because the funding request is too large. Ideas for alternate funding sources are welcome.
Introduction
This is a proposal to create an intuitive, open-sourced grant-making system using the Drupal Content Management system, to facilitate an open source alternative for essential needs of non-profit organizations and foundations.
Read moreDocumentation sprints for better docs and to grow the team
Edit, October 2 -- This proposal has been passed along to the Knight Foundation for consideration -- http://drupal.org/node/316402. End Edit
This proposal is to request funding to improve Drupal's documentation by conducting documentation-specific sprints. There are two major components to this project:
1) Tackle big Documentation team issues: Gather key people to work on specific documentation issues that will further the goals of the Documentation team, the handbooks on Drupal.org and documentation that ships with the Drupal code.
Knight Drupal Initiative monthly proposal review -- 11 September 2008
After a week of delay due to DrupalCON related travel, it is time for our monthly open review meeting. We will meet for the next round of proposal reviews on Thursday, September 11th at 14:00 Eastern (US) (18:00 UTC).
The meeting will be held in IRC #drupal-dojo on irc.freenode.net. (See http://drupal.org/irc for information about using IRC.) We will meet for 1:30 with the following agenda:
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Can someone post a proposal both here (KDI) and in the Knight News Challenge
(I just realised I could post this as a discussion and not as a comment to the FAQ, sorry for the double post)
Hello all! I'm pretty interested in submitting an idea to either the KDI or to the knight News Challenge (or both). My question is this : is it possible to submit the same project to both programs, or should I choose between the two?
If I should choose where to apply, what could help taking the decision on where to ask for the actual support? Is it total budget, the project's nature in itself or something else?
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Funding Usability and d.o. Redesign Work
Making Drupal easier to find, assess and use seem like good fits for the Knight Drupal Initiative.
We all know that there will be a lot of work to do in the redesign, both for theming as well as module development. How about lining up funding for sustained development time and perhaps things like hosted d.o. redesign sprints?
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