Good News / Good Deeds
Fact Sheet
- What: A three-year research and community education project on how our region can use the new information technology, along with improved relations between media and nonprofits, to help citizens be more effective and powerful.
- When: January 1, 1995 through December 31, 1997
- Where: The Puget Sound region, Washington
- Why: A big-thinking, independent effort is needed to spur a local information highway that serves citizens as well as corporations and government (and allows them to "reinvent community"). Non profits and media organizations can do a better job of this "reinvention" by improving the ways in which they interact with each other on behalf of the public good. "New media" including interactive television, computer-assisted communication, and "electronic democracy" are being pioneeredd and tested here. Seattle has a history of creativity and civic involvement that makes a new level of dialogue possible.
- Who: Good News / Good Deeds is a project of the Institute for Creative Development, a Seattle-based think tank which has facilitated think tanks on the future of such asreas as philanthropy, chemistry, nuclear energy, and public television. Principals are Jan Gray (broadcast background), Stephen Silha (print/nonprofit background), and Marion Woyvodich (print/marketing background). A number of organizations and individuals are collaborating.
- So What? Expected products include focus group research to improve media coverage of the nonprofit sector, a report on national models for media-nonprofit collaboration, training sessions and materials for journalists, philanthroupists, and nonprofit leaders, a series of public discussions, and an electronic database of nonprofit "sources" for use by news organizations and the public. Out of the process will come a broader understanding of how the new media can work for citizens, and a commmunity communications syustem that enhances citizens' efforts to foster healthy communities.
Goals
Contact: Jan Gray (206) 789-4143 / Stephen Silha (206) 567 - 4363 / Marion Woyvodich (206) 522 - 5754 / c/o P.O. Box 2003, Vashon Island, Washington 98070. Institute for Creative Development: Dr. Charles Johnston