The Citizen Media Law Project, jointly affiliated with Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and this Center, is launching this week, with the help of a $250,000 grant from the Knight Foundation.
Our central aim is to provide practical knowledge and tools for citizen journalists. In the coming months we will be adding many resources to this site, including a legal guide that will cover everything from how to form a business to how to use freedom of information and open meetings laws to get access to information, meetings, and governmental records, as well as other legal subjects such as risks associated with online publication.
David Ardia is director of the project. He brings incredible experience to the table, including a stint in the general counsel’s office at the Washington Post. We have a great group of advisors, too.
The project is one of many being funded by the Knight Foundation’s 21st Century News Challenge. MIT got a mega-grant to create a center for innovative civic media, and journalist-programmer Adrian Holovaty got a pile of money to create what sounds like a great hyper-local set of sites.
Other funded projects of note:
Global Voices Online, also affiliated with the Berkman Center (I’m on the advisory board), got a significant grant to pursue its great work.
Lisa Williams’ Placeblogger.com, which we helped incubate, is also being funded.
My UC-Berkeley colleague, Paul Grabowicz, will pursue his terrific Oakland music project.
…and many, many more…
Congrats to all, and to the Knight Foundation for having the vision to do this.