2. What?
Civic Playground is a hub for developing apps
that help readers address civic issues while
keeping journalism relevant in the digital age
3. Why?
To help answer two questions bedeviling us:
• How do we reinvent local community on the
web?
• And how do we reinvent the local marketplace
online?
4. A virtuous circle
Civic Playground creates a virtuous cycle of
reporting that feeds interest in the app,
followed by the app driving mobile and web
traffic, community engagement, brand
identity and advertising opportunities
5. How?
• A pathway to our stories
• Apps that add value to journalism
• Tips about where the best sale is
• Sunday coupons
• Planning the weekend
• Comics and puzzles
• What is on the school menu this week
6. Journalism expertise, tech and
advertising
• Find the right health care provider
• Local nursing homes information
• The college with the best value for the money
• Keep families safe by knowing which products
have been recalled
7. When?
The project began in 2012 as an ideaLab
proposal using digital tools to evolve the
journalism business model beyond the paid
vs. unpaid content debate and provide new
opportunities in the evolving entrepreneurial
ecosystem
8. SNAPMapper
“The Yelp for food stamp users”
•Search for deals (“Which store has the cheapest milk
today?”)
•Search by store or location
•Get AC Transit, driving or walking directions
•Crowdsource store quality (★★★ ratings incentivize
stores to do better and let people know it)
•Won several prizes including Alameda County’s Dec.
2012 hackathon (beat out 24 teams) and is in
development for use by the county Social Services
Agency
10. ShopHere
Foursquare your “Shop Local” strategy
• Find what you are looking for in your city
• Earn brownie points for shopping local
• Brings together merchants, business
associations, news organizations (including
the advertising departments!) and City Hall
around local shopping initiatives like
“ShopOakland”
• Roll out Sept. 2013 in time for holiday
shopping
12. Recover2Gether
• There before, during and after a disaster to
help the community help itself
• Connects the people who have a need to those who can
help: “I have a case of water,” “I need help turning off the
gas,” “ I want to volunteer”
• Mobile and SMS ready
• “I’m safe!” alert and community warnings (“Don’t drink the
water!”)
• Emergency preparation: How to make an earthquake kit
• Leverages existing resources: Tidepools, SF72, Red Cross,
Google Crisis Response and city services =>
13.
14. Branding opportunities
We will be taking the MoJo van to four busy
community stops to start design ideas for
Recover2Gether – including a new name that
advertisers will want to associate with. The
trick is to design an app that responds to an
unmet need and that can be repurposed in an
emergency. We are already working with a
model from the Red Hook Initiative in
Brooklyn (http://www.tidepools.co).
19. Room for Growth
…despite a glut of mobile apps.
• Globally there are 1.1 billion smart phone
subscribers with growth in Q4:12 at 42%
• But penetration was only at 17%
• Civic Playground apps are built for IOS and
Android platforms
20. A new model is imperative
• Social media is no silver bullet
• Civic Playground takes journalism as one of the core
functions of a news organization
• People want to read what is relevant to them but
journalists are often cut off from the communities they
cover especially in shrinking newsrooms
• Civic Playground reconnects them but produces
journalism AND solutions on the public and the
business side
• Get stories read, increase traffic, value and brand
without “writing for clicks”
21. Journalism has to change “not just tactics, but also
self-conception” to survive in the new landscape
“For traditional news organizations, the big
question is not whether these types of
journalists will exist. They will, and in fact
already do.
The question is whether news organizations will
adapt quickly enough to nurture and make
room for them.”
Editor's Notes
Figures from a 2012 Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers report, “Internet Trends,” showed that app revenue in 2012 exceeded advertising.
Smart phone use is exploding internationally and in the United States, even among households whose income is less than $15,000. Indeed, a Pew report showed that for low-income Americans, a smart phone might be the primary access to the Internet. Over half (56 percent) of the $15,000 or less income bracket are smart phone owners, ages 18-24. In the 25-34 age group, 43% of those at this income level are making room for a smart phone in their limited budgets. Among 35-44 year olds, 31 percent of those making under $15,000 own a smart phone.
