witchescauldron@openworlds.info What are your main sources of income? * We have grassroot grants from such orgnisations as lush, donations from events and will be crowed funding to support our ongoing #openweb projects
What is your process for dealing with complaints and mistakes? * We have clear TOS for our projects, look at the bootem of the page https://campaign.openworlds.info/about/more and https://activism.openworlds.info/about/more for examples. These are moderated by a globe crew of currently 7 people who make decisions by #4opens consensus https://github.com/Openmedianetwork/openweb/wiki/How-OMN-projects-are-run
Do you know what the NUJ Code of Conduct is and are you wiling to uphold it? * We have members of the NUJ working on all the projects and have read this document and uphold it.
Can you include a link to your website? * We run meany media projects here is a page linking to them https://github.com/Openmedianetwork/openweb/wiki/State-of-the-OMN-project-03-18
Are you willing to support Media Fund coordinated fundraising drives and other promotional activities the fund takes on? We do this already posting your content to all our many channels when something fits the appropriate feed.
What can you offer to The Media Fund in terms of reach and capabilities? We have had over 50 million video views over the last 15 years and a maybe the same/more webpage views so we have some reach, though with the rise of the #dotcons this is less than we had in the past. Its time to reboot the #openweb which we are actively doing.
Can you briefly describe your organisation - what it does and how it does it? * We build and support ethical #4opens #openweb media projects and hand them to the users/admins and supporters to run.
Finally, are there any other points you would like to make and take forward to the AGM? We do need projects like #themediafund, I actually set-one up to test the idea back in 2013 http://fund.openworlds.info lets reboot a healthy alt/radical/grassroots/outreach media. We used to have a strong one in the huge globle http://indymedia.org network and the groups such as http://www.undercurrents.org and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SchNEWS
Funding document writing for ****
6 month stipend/expenses £1000 for outreach 6 month stipend/expenses £1000 for server 6 month stipend/expenses £1000 for coordination Hosting server/domain £500 for 1 year. Travel/phone/data/equipment £1000 Events/workshops £500
total £5000
After the 6 months the project will be run on funding from patron and donation drives on the sites Charity Pot application form
We fund small organisations and projects that fall in to the following three areas:- Environment Animal protection Human rights
We prioritise less popular causes that struggle to find funding and projects that aim to create long-term change (e.g. projects that influence opinion and behaviour through education, advocacy and campaigning) and those tackling the root cause of the problem. We do not fund illegal activity. Grants range from £100-£10,000 (although we rarely give £10,000, and the average is £2,000 - £4,000). We aim to make decisions within 6-8 weeks, although the grant cannot be awarded until reference checks are complete which is out of our control and can take many more weeks. Please read the full guidelines on our website carefully before you apply. Please upload this form, as a Word document (.doc) on our website, and you will be given a unique reference number. Thank you.
Application Overview Have you read our funding guidelines? yes Date of application 13/02/18 Date by which funds are requested ASAP Name of organisation Open Media Network (OMN) Website http://omn.openworlds.info Contact person and position within organisation Hamish Campbell Address (of organisation, not personal address) Environment Centre Swansea, Pier Street Swansea, SA1 1RY Email address witchescauldron@openworlds.info / hamish@visionon.tv Phone number
Name of project (max 10 words) Mastodon for Campaign and Activism (a OMN/visionontv project) Summary of project activities (max 25 words. For example ‘A conference for community groups campaigning about air quality, and launch of new website) Putting social media back in our hands by providing a free, unfettered home for campaigners, NGO’s and activists to communicate among their peers and beyond. Amount requested: £5000 Annual income and expenditure of your organisation (please include all entities of your organisation) £9000 How did you first hear about the Lush Charity Pot? A recommendation from another campaign group (please state which one), or via our website, or via another funding body (which one?), or other route (please tell us)?Lush Charity Pot is well known to us all. Lush Charity Pot is well known to us all. Can we put details of your organisation and project (including your logo) in our online and printed communications? (This is to help promote your work and to be transparent to our customers and is entirely optional. We never ask for groups to display our logo or promote Lush in anyway. Please contact us if you wish to publicise our donation). Yes
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Your organisation Information in this section applies to your organisation generally, not to the project you are applying for funds for. Type of organisation (Charity? CIC? Registered non-profit? Unregistered?) Non-profit limited company by guarantee (this is VisionOntv Ltd, which will hold the funds to be disbursed to the OMN project) Registration number (if applicable) 6872392 Number of paid staff 0 a) Mission Statement What is the aim of your organisation (max 50 words) The OMN Playing a role in rebooting the openweb by helping to mainstream the healthy alt/subculture tech projects to wider activist and campaigning organisations. By doing this creating “free” media distribution alongside the current pay-per-view “social networks”. b) Background information Please give a brief description of your organisation; this should include your history, main principles, recent successes, your current programmes/ activities to achieve your aims. (max 100 words) Visionontv grew from Undercurrents and has been distributing and creating social change video, technology and training for more than 20 years. The core of this current mission is building alternative tech projects of which the OMN is the current main project. The mastodon installs are part of this OMN outreach.
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The Project - Information in this section should refer specifically to the project you are seeking funding for. Project justification: Please describe why is your project needed. What root causes of the problem does it address? (max 150 words) “We can't engage as communities, unless we have money. I can't even express how angry this makes me.” - activist group using Facebook. People and organisations who feel this way are our initial targets. This project is a way out of the restricted algorithmic for-profit mediation and commercialisation of communication we campaigners increasingly experience. For example a Facebook page will only reach to 3-6% of members if you do not pay Facebook to “boost” each post this soon becomes expensive and a drain on limited NGO and activist budgets. Activists and campaigners are ready to move from the corporate social networks to get outreach outside of these paid per view “walled gardens”.
Project activities and aims: Describe in detail what will you do, including a timeline. What results do you hope to achieve? How do these results create long-term change? (max 400 words) The launch of 2 new mastodon instances for Activists and Campaigners to aid communication in grassroot groups. Mastodon, the worlds largest free open source decentralised microblogging network, isn’t one place and one set of rules: it’s thousands of unique, interconnected communities to choose from, filled with different people, interests, languages, and needs. Don’t like the rules? You’re free to join any community you like, or better yet: you can host your own, on your own terms! Putting the user first. You’re a person, not a product. There is no monopoly by a single commercial company, no adds, and no tracking. Mastodon works for you, and not the other way around. We aim to help activism/campaigning groups to make this step now. https://campaign.openworlds.info https://activism.openworlds.info There are over 1 million users and growing fast this stepping outside the “walled gardens” project time has come. Quoting a recent facebook thread from Rebecca Lush, a funders view “we are getting more and more funding applications from groups who're including "social media boosts" as a campaigning cost. We're in a real dilemma about it, as we recognise that groups need to be on social media to reach people, but hate the thought of giving money to Facebook.” Project timeline: Month 1
- Build a core crew to sustain openweb projects
- Build a sustainable server infrastructure to host the projects
- Launch 2 instances of mastodon – Activism and Campaign Month 2-5
- Promote these out to activist and NGO groups (spiky/fluffy) for internal and outreach use. Month 6-9
- Put sustainable funding in place via Patreon/Liberapay
We aim to achieve an approximate number of 500 Activists and 2000 Campaign users signed up and active to: a. Build awerness of the advantages of using the openweb. b. Create a mainstream media buzz. c. Use the interest to integrate NGO’s who can accelerate the push. d. Give back a voice to our society to deal with the issues facing the world. In the longer term, we provide people the option to move away from decreasingly trusted social networks, and rebuild a healthy open web.
Target group: Please describe who/what your project will help and how many people you hope to reach (max 100 words) Mastodon currently reaches around a million people in multiple communities; we aim to introduce this “openweb” project to wider Activism and Campaign groups. Directly 2500 people in the first 9 months and indirectly many more. Where and when will the project take place, and how long will the project last? (max 100 words) Online and UK/European. The project will start as soon as possible and continue as a sustainable alternative. The direct funded part will run for 9 months to kick it into motion.
Potential duplication: Who else is working in this area? How is your work different? (max 100 words) Social networking organisations and companies are many. Within this soup, federated networks are generating a lot of excitement. Being federated, duplication is not an issue; in fact it is positive. There is a growing public distrust of Facebook and Twitter as they become increasingly limited and controlling. Our work differs as we are moving in the opposite direction. We compliment the existing structures (i.e. Facebook) in what we hope to be a transition period, putting more power back in the hands of users and community.
Budget: Please give a detailed budget in pounds for the project activities outlined above, and clearly state the total amount of funding you are asking for. Please note the maximum we will (rarely) grant is £10,000, and the average is £2,000-£4,000. 9 month allowance/expenses for outreach/events person - £1000 9 month allowance/expenses for server admin person - £1000 9 month allowance/expenses for coordination/outreach person £1000 Server/domain for 1 year - £500 Travel/phone/data/equipment - £1000 Events/workshops budget - £500
total £5000
Current/previous funding: Have you had any funding from LUSH in the past 5 years? If you have secured funding from elsewhere or applied to another funder for this project, please give details. If you are not applying for the full cost of this project, please give full details on how you’ll raise the remainder. This project has received no funding. After 9 months the project will be run on funding from Liberapay/Patreon and donation drives on the sites. Would you be able to complete the project if we gave a smaller amount? Yes but this is a micro budget to start with.
- Financial information and bank details: We get huge numbers of applications with incorrect bank details. It is your responsibility to fill this in correctly. We will decline all applications with incorrect bank details. We do not pay grants into personal bank accounts. If you have an international bank account please be sure to submit ALL relevant information needed for us to complete a transaction, and we will need a scanned version of a recent Bank Statement for the international account you wish the funds to be placed in, showing ALL bank details. What are your other main sources of funding? Our work is largely DIY motivated. Visionontv our host organisation has received funding from Lush in the past for other projects and Visionontv is up for putting limited funding into starting/supporting the OMN project. If you are a UK charity, do you claim Gift Aid?
For UK bank accounts Account Name Visionontv ltd Account Number (8 numbers)
Sort Code (6 numbers)
For International accounts Account name and address of account holder
SWIFT code,
IBAN
Bank name and address
- References: Please choose your referees very carefully because we will contact them if you are shortlisted and payments are often delayed due to long response times from referees. Please give the name, telephone number, address and email address of two individuals at organisations that you work with. The referees must be independent, i.e. they cannot be staff, volunteers or board members of your organisation. If applying for a project overseas, please give a reference for an international NGO you work with. Name: ****** Organisation and address: Undercurrents Position: Email address: ****** Telephone number: *****
Name: ****** Organisation and address: Position: Principal research engineer, BBC Email address: ****** Telephone number:******
- Declaration: I certify that the information given in this application form is correct to the best of my knowledge. I confirm that any money granted by Lush will only be used for the purposes set out on this application form, and will not be used for unlawful purposes. I also confirm that my group: does not promote or support violence, aggression or oppression towards others (we will only support non-violent direct action groups); does not deny the human rights of others; is not involved in cruelty or subjugation of animals, including testing on animals for research; does not force or coerce others to change their religious beliefs; harbour racism, prejudice or judges others on anything other than their own actions; and has made every effort to be environmentally responsible. Name: Hamish Campbell Date: 13/2/18
Feedback (what you write will not affect how we treat your application) What do you think of our application process? We have tried to make it as short and easy as possible, but would like to know what you think, and whether you think it could be improved