ForgottenHeadlines
Location
About You
Location
Project Street Address
1st Floor, 3-9-138/2, Plot #2, Simhapuri Colony, W.Mareddpally
Project City
Secunderabad
Project Province/State
AP
Project Postal/Zip Code
500026
Project Country
India
Your idea
Will you launch your idea as a business or non-profit?
Non-Profit
Web site (url)
Name Your Project
ForgottenHeadlines
Describe Your Idea
Innovation
What is your idea? What makes it innovative? Why is it important?
Media in many countries is in search of sensationalism, moving from one headline to another; the victim of which process, many a time is truth, justice and long term policy changes.
Our Idea is to create a (virtual) platform, where headlines (read as issues) are taken to their logical end, using the crowd and the associated power of the people to ensure that issues are not buried and forgotten
When new headlines involve either issues which are tricky in nature or people who would ensure that justice does not happen, the role people can play to ensure that these are addressed gets limited because (a) generating critical mass of public opinion to impact change becomes difficult or close to impossible, (b) even in those cases where ‘groups’ or forums are formed, they get bought over or bulldozed by the powers that be, (c) the information necessary (as things progress) gets difficult to get, leading to a loss of interest and/or ability to fight objectively
Today, banking of people’s short memory, and media’s inherent urge to focus on ‘today’s issues’; politicians, policy makers, and other powers that be, in (especially) developing countries, get away with not addressing core issues.
Impact
What will be the impact of your idea?
Our idea will be to address these issues, which in turn will impact justice dispensation process/times, and policy changes
How – Create a portal that can act an opinion aggregation forum for issues that are out of the media circuit but are of public interest.
To achieve this, the portal intends to collaborate with a news media channel and seek possibilities of running a weekly half to one hourly programme, Forgotten Headlines. The programme would take up issues highlighted in its web portal and conduct further research on the progress of the issues from the time they were last reported in the media.
As a part of phase II, once the portal has gained enough traction, it would seek to play the role of a facilitator and provide support to forgotten issues in the form of legal, monetory aid as well as liaison with social activist groups for the same.
This Entry is about (Issues)
People: We are looking for ideas from people who can make them happen.
Chandra Mouli: Is the CEO of SimpVentive, a startup firm whose aims is to bring simple and innovative (SimpVentive) to the stated and unstated needs of customers/people, by using technology. The company will be rolling out the first ever crowdsourcing platform for organizational problem solving process.
Veena Vudatala: Veena is a First Year PGDM student at IIM (Lucknow) and will be working on the conceptual framework of the project
And a set of experienced professionals in the area of internet based application development
We will be bringing shortly on board a very experienced media person
Sustainability
How much will it cost to launch your idea?
Portal development will cost around $10,000 to $15,000
Initial research and content development will cost around $15,000 -$ 20,000
One of the methods which is proposed to be used for this is to seek public money (the way Wikipedia), this would happen after sufficient amount of traction at the site.
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Comments
Chandra: It would help me if you could clarify your idea. It sounds like you propose to take up stories that mainstream media has, essentially, left behind. You would create discussion areas for these areas on a web site. You would produce TV segments on issues that generate the most discussion. Then, you would take on the most pressing issues by proposing and executing real-world solutions.
Is that a fair summary? If so, what exactly is the role of "the crowd and the associated power of the people," as you put it? Do they determine which forgotten headlines get picked up again? Do they do the journalistic legwork necessary to advance the stories? How do your participants create value?
Thanks,
Keith
Dear Keith
That was quick...
Let me see if I can get this ...The answer for the first part is Yes.
What will the crowd do? They will get on to this platform, and in a variety of areas (business, politics, sports, social etc), will track the issues that they want to be knowing more about...the portal will get the RSS feeds...for which ever sites still are tracking it...We keep count of the number of people on each of the news item and also ask the people to rate the importance (to justice, policy change, etc)...
Then those news items which are most followed ...that is the ones people want to know more are feed to the news channel (with which we propose to tie up)...then they run...which create a secondary stream of interest...
What value the crowd brings...just that...the sheer numbers ...the critical mass that is required to keep the 'torch on an issue' lest darkness takes over it....
Then we plan to do a host of other things...we are working on it...and I will keep you posted..
Regards
Mouli
Dear Keith
That was quick...
Let me see if I can get this ...The answer for the first part is Yes.
What will the crowd do? They will get on to this platform, and in a variety of areas (business, politics, sports, social etc), will track the issues that they want to be knowing more about...the portal will get the RSS feeds...from which ever sites still are tracking it...We keep count of the number of people on each of the news item and also ask the people to rate the importance (to justice, policy change, etc)...
Then those news items which are most followed ...that is the ones people want to know more are feed to the news channel (with which we propose to tie up)...then they run...which create a secondary stream of interest...and importantly ensures a 'public pressure' on the issue resolution
What value the crowd brings...just that...the sheer numbers ...the critical mass that is required to keep the 'torch on an issue' lest darkness takes over it....
Then we plan to do a host of other things...we are working on it...and I will keep you posted..
Regards
Mouli
would like to see the impact of this concept in third world/developing countries
Firstly, this idea will only target minority groups as most of the Mainstream Media follows on many of the major issues publicized. As I see it, the ideas that your website seem to promote will require support of many minority groups. Secondly, how will you reach these groups (mass population) given the fact that a major percent of the population does not have proper access to the Internet????? Could you also give me an example of an issue that would be publicized on your website??? What issue has the media left behind in recent days/weeks that your website might take on board?????
Let me first tell you that this was very good comment.../ question...
Let me first take the second question..The media's reach is much more than internet...but that is changing fast...internet penetration is going up. But, that is not (the only thing) we are banking on...Now once, we can get some 'crowding' on the website for any issue, we will have the 'information feed' to a channel which will take it up. (Please see our comments below). Now, opinion of the internet connected communities, will ensure that the (main stay) media 'again' takes up the issue. This would in turn mean that for a large population the issue comes back to focus.
Now I am not sure what you would mean by minority groups...if by this, you mean 'crowding that happens on certain issues...I would not use the word minority....for we are attempting to make these minority significant voices.
* As I understand you are not going to find solutions /arbitrate solutions yourself. You will only facilitate solutions through Detailed Research, NGOs, monetary aid, law enforcement organizations etc.. This is good.
* Echocing somebody's comment: Take a case study of some / any past event that got forgotten by mainstream press, courious to see how you visualize ForgottenHeadlines.com's impact on outcome should it have existed at that point in time (bringing the true picture earlier, saving time, saving precious lifes, force discussion & hence prevent recurrence etc..)
* You may want to define your "target issue domain" bit more specifically - Asia, Politics, Social etc.. and out of scope domains. You will soon run thin on the number of experts you need to follow issues or to do research.
Also, in my opinion, some problems may just not have solutions..(Are there really such issues??).. In such cases, media trials may end up aggravating the problems. Will you have mechanisms to drop such items?
I like the idea though. Good to have a moral policeman for the fourth estate :)
Dear Mr.Laks
First and foremost sorry for the delayed response...looks like somehow we missed out on this...
Yes, we will be operating as a not for profit entity... just to make sure that we are not carried away by the same pressures that media is under these days...
Let me just take a small issue. We will try to stick to a non-social one. Let us take the case of what the nation was gripped with say 6 months (or so back)...the Indo US nuclear deal. It almost looked like the Govt. will fall. Most (we have no issue standing corrected here) had no idea...except for a vague understanding...of what this Nuclear deal was all about. And then the claims - all kinds of things flying around - independence from fossil fuels, ability to get to new technologies, 1000's of jobs, and what not. Now, an issue which was so vital to this nation just 6 months back...not a word about it anywhere, now......If we were following this issue through our portal, 'the crowd' would try to keep the focus on this issue...and follow if the nation gains all that was said it would......by 'public opinion garnering process'.
Now let me take another example. When was the last you (by you, we mean people in general) heard of the multi crore fake stamp paper scam...If we had a mechanism by which we could enable media refocus on where this issue is dont you think we would be (slightly) better off?
Yes you are right, we are in the process of making it India centric first...and then depending on how it goes, take it elsewhere...
Thanks a lot for your comments...
Regards
Veena & Mouli
The purpose of such a site would be served if you could facilitate affirmative action. How?
And if the sheer volumes increase, how would you ensure forgottenheadlines doesn't forget headlines themselves? Through the masses themselves, you say?
There are many groups, that are started for specific issues, like, "Youth for Change" against the reservation issue. You might consider integrating them.
Mr. Mouli
Your concept is really interesting and required in the current global scenario, but hoping the information provided to your site would be transparent and accurate, eventually which you will be publishing. As most of the information will be suppressed by the politicians and powerful guys in the society. your site need to provide the information above all these people, where common people can trust the media and look them from positive perspective.
Mouli, would you like to tell me where exactly in the entire system would bring the change by your concept where we are currently living and accepting the things. ie., the starting point for the change?
Prasad