wdf | people | guidelines | how to apply Deadline: Sunday, November 2, 1997 Midnight (New York Time) What kinds of projects will be supported? Only single websites will be supported by the WDF. (However, if you have ideas for "series" of web-only projects that are thematically linked, or for projects that combine broadcast and online elements, please send email to:stories@pov.org.) Sites may be about: - a specific public issue (e.g. abortion, immigration, culture wars), - private issue (e.g. self-esteem, divorce, addiction), - problem (e.g. race, war, acne), - or other subject of public discussion (e.g. media, paparazzi, Barbie Dolls) but they must bring fresh perspectives, giving participants opportunities (and encouragement) to go well beyond spouting, posturing and flaming. Although WebLab, the organization sponsoring the WDF, is a spinoff of P.O.V. Interactive, we are not simply trying to create a Web equivalent of P.O.V., the public TV series of independent documentaries "with a point of view." We are very open to approaches that use humor, fiction (even science fiction!), in addition to straight-ahead non-fiction. As noted elsewhere on these pages, we're also much more interested in multiple perspectives that take advantage of the Web as a participatory medium, rather than one perspective. Sites may be linked to a particular event or date if appropriate (e.g. the anniversary of Jackie Robinson's first major league season; an election; a TV broadcast; the 4th of July, etc.) Projects may originate anywhere in the world, but English must be a primary language and the subject should be of interest to participants in North America. Since innovation is the goal, there are no categories, and we look forward to seeing at least a few proposals for projects unlike anything that's been done before! However, we have developed some "model" websites -- and identified others -- that encourage story-telling, substantive dialogues that continue over time, and other strategies for involving a range of people in exploration of public or personal issues. We encourage you to spend some time exploring these sites, not with the idea of duplicating them, but with the idea of thinking in new ways about the potential of the web as a social medium. Examples: Regarding Vietnam: Stories Since the War Hong Kong '97: Lives in Transition Ready to Live: Art and Life Beyond Street Violence Jerome B. Wiesner: a Random Walk through the 20th Century gURL Who is eligible to apply? Individuals and organizations may apply. Proposals are welcome from seasoned Web designers and developers who have project ideas that they've always wanted to do Individuals who have a compelling idea but have no experience in Web design Everyone in between. What kinds of support will be provided? In the first round, the WDF will provide selected projects with funds, guidance, technical support, design and programming services (if needed) and PBS Online will provide a host server with a variety of licensed technologies, including threaded discussion, forms submission, Java, streaming audio/video, and Shockwave. Support will average $25,000 or less but may run as high as $50,000 in cash and services for particularly exciting projects. You are expected to provide matching funds toward the total project cost, which may be some combination of cash and in-kind contributions. Finalists will be asked to document their ability to supply matching funds. We will also promote each site launched with WDF support, coordinating with each site producer. Because project funds are limited, organizational overhead costs cannot be covered by the WDF. What's the time frame? Because it will take several months to complete the selection and contracting process, we expect projects will begin in the early part of 1998. While the time to "launch" will vary depending on the complexity of the project, and we will want to schedule public launches of WDF sites so they will not conflict or compete with each other for attention, we expect most sites to take between 1 and 6 months to develop. Evaluation Criteria Project Purpose Potential for breaking new ground Feasibility Potential for stimulating involvement by a diverse group of people Appeal to a wide audience - potential for generating some excitement and energy Review/Selection Process Selection of projects will be made by the Executive Producer, in consultation with the Advisory Committee. Eligible proposals will first be reviewed by outside readers, who will evaluate them based on the evaluation criteria provided in these guidelines. WebLab staff will also read and evaluate all eligible proposals. Based on reader and staff evaluations, staff will prepare a list of finalist proposals. Finalists will be contacted for further information if it's needed at this stage. The WDF Advisory Committee will meet to review the finalist proposals and recommend projects for support. The Executive Producer and staff will then contact project directors to discuss any outstanding issues. These discussions are intended to resolve any differences that exist between the original proposal and what WebLab proposes to support. Not all finalists who are contacted will necessarily be offered a contract. All project directors will be contacted by February 27, 1998 Questions Questions about the Web Development Fund, these guidelines, submission procedures, etc. can be addressed to stories@pov.org. We will try to respond within 48 hours, but a high volume of mail may cause delays. No phone calls, please! Updated as of September 30, 1997

I'm interested in healthcare and in healthcare information. You probably think that everything that can be said about healthcare has already been said, but think about this as a novel approach. I believe that one of the things that is yet lacking is a good conceptual model of healthcare that takes into account information theory and knowledge management. How about putting up a web site that describes the problem domain, lays out an initial structure, and allows contributors from many different disciplines to help construct the model? When I say different disciplines, I mean a wide base of subject areas, including topics as diverse as linguistics, mathematics, computer science as well as medical science, psychology, sociology and economics.

I tried to put some pseudo html tags in front of and after the previous post. These were apparently stripped off. I had hoped for it to say: "brainstorming" ... text ... "/brainstorming" except angle brackets in place of the quotes. :-)

What about the issue of providing matching funds?

I don't know how they count this, the Spring has an operating budget of about $800 a month a pretty substantial investment in equipment. I'll have to research this aspect more. I could approach DELL, IBM, Apple and other local companies about providing matching funds possibly.

Terry, it sounds to me like parts of the Spring already fit the criteria above. Do you have to launch a new conference to apply for this? You already have so many set up for discussion of personal issues -- and perhaps some publicity to get new people posting and talking is all that's required.

I'd like to get folks ideas on where we can go with this Spring. Give me you wildest, dreamiest ideas on what you'd like to see happen here.

treatise on cross-platform DHTML: http://developer.netscape.com/news/viewsource/goodman_cssp/goodman_cssp.html