An open source project, to pioneer “community funded reporting.”

What is Spot.Us About?

Spot.Us is a nonprofit project of the Center for Media Change and funded by various groups like the Knight Foundation.

We are an open source project, to pioneer "community funded reporting." Through Spot.Us the public can commission journalists to do reporting on important and perhaps overlooked topics. Contributions are tax deductible and if a news organization buys exclusive rights to the content, your donation will be reimbursed. Otherwise, all content is made available through a Creative Commons license. It's a marketplace where independent reporters, community members and news organizations can come together and collaborate.

You can learn more about us at our Press Page, the FAQ's page.
http://spot.us/

NY Times story on the pacific garbage patch. It's twice the size of texas! http://bit.ly/KcJBB

Story: Dissecting the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
In the science section of the New York Times November 10th, 2009 you'll find a story from Lindsey Hoshaw on the Pacific Garbage Patch. This story was partly funded by the Spot.Us community and is credited as such.
http://spot.us/stories/252-dissecting-the-great-pacific-garbage-patch

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iSC_k8BSFHlGN6nbX0mpFbUaF1Tw


New York Times publishes 'crowd-funded' article
(AFP) – 1 day ago

WASHINGTON — The science section of The New York Times contained an unusual article on Tuesday. The story about a huge floating garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean was not written by a Times reporter but by a freelance journalist whose expenses were paid by hundreds of donors in an experiment in "crowd-funded" journalism.

The travel expenses for journalist Lindsey Hoshaw's trip were raised through Spot.Us, which describes itself as a "nonprofit project to pioneer 'community funded' reporting."

Spot.Us, according to its website, allows the public to "commission investigations with tax deductible donations for important and perhaps overlooked stories.

"It?s a marketplace where independent reporters, community members and news organizations can come together and collaborate," it says.

The website lists 6,000 dollars in donations for the Pacific garbage patch story from more than 100 people.

Among the listed donors are Web luminaries such as Craig Newmark, the founder of classified site Craigslist, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and others.

Spot.Us is a project of the Center for Media Change, a San
Francisco-based non-profit.

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Spot.Us has been covered and talked about by traditional news organizations like the New York Times, NPR and PBS as well as new media giants like TechCrunch and Wired. Below is a sampling which should give you sense of just how much attention Spot.Us is making for our innovative approach to funding journalism.
http://www.spot.us/pages/press/