NewsCloud/UMN

 
Facebook  Engagement  Study  Proposal  
Summary  
During  a  six-­‐month  period,  NewsCloud  will  sequentially  launch  two  different  social  
media  publications  as  Facebook  applications,  each  with  a  distinct  strategic  approach  
to  promoting  participation,  community  and  awareness  with  young  people  using  
social  networks.  

In  parallel,  the  University  of  Minnesota  Institute  for  New  Media  Studies  and  
Learning  Technologies  will  work  with  NewsCloud  to  configure  our  efforts  and  later  
study  the  results  and  impact  of  each  particular  strategy  and  publication.  

At  the  end  of  the  project,  a  UMN  researcher  will  publish  qualitative  and  quantitative  
research  from  the  study  with  the  goal  of  documenting  strategies  that  work  best  to  
engage  youth  in  new  media  in  social  networking  environments.  

Cost  for  phase  one  of  the  project  including  technical  and  operational  costs  and  
academic  research  is  estimated  at  $234,018.  

Publications,  Approaches  and  Phasing  

The  study  will  consist  of  two  phases  of  approximately  six  months  each.  The  phasing  
will  allow  time  to  focus  on  the  technical  and  community  development  of  each  
publication  as  well  as  academic  research.  There  will  also  be  time  towards  the  end  of  
the  first  phase  to  assess  the  focus  of  our  work  and  make  adjustments  before  fully  
defining  phase  two.  

The  preliminary  list  and  sequence  of  publications  and  accompanying  approaches  to  
promoting  engagement    is  as  follows:  

Phase  One  

1. Obama  Campaign  News  Site  for  2008  Election  (e.g.  HopeStreet)1  

• Topic-­‐based,  all  content  filtered  by  age  groups2.  Readers  see  only  
stories,  comments  and  people  within  their  demographic  e.g.  16-­‐21,  
21-­‐25,  26–35,  36+  
 
2. College-­‐oriented  News  in  the  Minnesota  region  
• Affinity-­‐based,  targets  a  specific  demographic  in  a  local  geographic  
region  e.g.  college  and  university  students  
                                                                                                               
1  If  Obama  were  elected,  the  site  would  continue  to  cover  his  agenda.  If  he  is  not  

elected,  the  site  will  continue  at  least  long  enough  to  cover  the  post-­‐mortem  of  his  
campaign.  
2  Regulations  make  it  difficult  to  study  Facebook  users  under  16.    

 
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Phase  Two  

3. Global  Warming  
• Advocacy-­‐based,  uses  Street  Team3reward  incentives  and  community.  
Participation  in  the  community  increases  the  readers’  point  scores  
that  can  be  redeemed  for  small  to  medium  prizes.  
4. Existing  Real  World  Community  (tbd)  
• Provide  a  social  media  Facebook  application  to  an  existing  youth  
outreach  organization    
5. Entertainment  e.g.  music,  movies,  games  
• Uses  soft  news  to  attract  and  engage  readers.  A  more  aggressive  
approach  might  offer  video  clips  only  vs.  written  stories.  

The  publications  will  be  launched  in  series,  beginning  in  September  -­‐  approximately  
one  per  three-­‐month  period.  This  will  allow  for  us  to  focus  on  one  launch  at  a  time;  
time  for  each  community  to  “mature;”  and  time  to  collect  data,  analyze  results  and  
formulate  conclusions  with  each  publication  separately.  Delaying  the  advocacy  
publication  launch  will  allow  time  up  front  for  development  of  the  Street  Team  
incentive  features.  

Ideally,  we  need  a  sample  size  of  at  least  300  active  readers  in  each  age  segment.    

Note:  This  may  be  difficult  to  accomplish  in  time  for  the  November  election  –  
but   we   believe   that   the   prevalence   of   Obama   supporters   inside   Facebook  
(1.15M   Facebook   users   on   the   Barack   Obama   page4)   will   help   us   achieve   this  
goal.  An  alternate  approach  would  be  to  choose  a  topic  from  phase  two  instead.  

For  the  most  part,  each  publication  will  have  similar  features  and  design.  In  some  
cases,  we  could  experiment  with  different  feature  sets  such  as  video  commentary,  
polls,  prediction  games,  et  al.  to  test  the  effectiveness  of  particular  ideas.  It  may  be  
important  to  add  these  to  the  publications  after  an  initial  study  period  to  isolate  
aspects  of  the  primary  study.    

At  this  time,  we  are  seeking  funding  for  phase  one  of  the  project.  Phase  two  funding  
will  be  discussed  as  we  make  progress  during  phase  one.  

Outcomes  
The  goal  of  this  project  is  to  learn  what  works  (and  what  doesn’t)  in  engaging  
younger  people  using  social  networks  in  new  media.  

Questions  that  guide  our  investigation  include:  

 
• What  gets  younger  Facebook  members  engaged  (or  not)  in  social  media?    

                                                                                                               
3  PETA  Street  Team  Program  http://www.idealog.us/2005/04/peta_street_tea.html  
4  http://www.facebook.com/barackobama?ref=ts  

 
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 • What  does  this  engagement  look  like?    

For  instance,  do  members  both  consume  these  news  sources  and  produce  related  
content:  talking  about,  with,  and  through  these  publications  to  each  other?  What  
impact  do  they  see  these  non-­‐traditional  news  sources  having  on  their  lives?  

• How  does  the  user’s  engagement  with  these  publications  contribute  to  the  
mission  of  the  affiliated  organization  (e.g.,  Obama  campaign  or  college  
mission)?  

To  answer  such  questions  merits  a  mixed  methods  approach  to  data  collection  and  
analysis;  University  of  Minnesota  researchers  will  collect  quantitative  data  on  user  
characteristics  and  interactions  with  the  publication  (e.g.,  frequency,  duration,  
features  utilized,  and  activities)  as  well  as  qualitative  data  on  the  users’  experience  
and  perspectives  to  produce  an  accurate  and  comprehensive  account.  Our  goal  is  to  
publish  these  findings,  thereby  contributing  to  the  knowledge  base  about  what  
works  with  independent  media,  as  well  as  use  these  data  to  improve  design  and  user  
experience.    

Some  of  the  data  collection  will  be  automated.  Internal  Facebook  application  
statistics  and  requested  internal  NewsCloud  statistical  tracking  features  will  provide  
data  for  quantitative  analysis  and  comparison  of  each  community.  For  example,  we  
can  measure  and  analyze  activity  levels  in  each  publication  based  on  reading,  link  
sharing,  commentary,  blogging/self-­‐publishing,  content  quality,  invitations,  virality,  
et  al.      

Other  data  collection  will  involve  surveying  and  talking  to  users  about  their  
perceptions  and  experiences.    University  of  Minnesota  researchers  will  develop  
survey  instruments  to  query  readers  and  active  members.  Focus  groups  with  users  
and  non-­‐users  will  also  be  performed  to  triangulate  survey  data  and  verify  trends.    
Staging  the  launch  of  each  publication  should  provide  adequate  time  for  qualitative  
analysis  of  the  evolution  and  high/low  points  in  each  community.  

The  end  result  will  be  an  academic  study  on  what  we  learned  and  suggestions  for  
further  areas  of  research.  

Potential  Partners  
Where  possible,  it  may  make  sense  to  partner  with  real  world  organizations  to  
facilitate  faster  adoption  and  growth  in  each  publication  community.  In  some  cases,  
these  might  be  co-­‐sponsors  who  would  offer  us  free  promotion  in  exchange  for  
featuring  their  brand  or  content.  

For  mission  related  organizations,  we  could  provide  the  service  of  launching  and  
hosting  a  Facebook  application  for  these  organizations  –  which  also  offers  
NewsCloud  the  additional  opportunity  to  assess  the  impact  of  one  of  its  technology  
solutions  on  the  mission  of  these  organizations.  

 
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Having  partners  may  facilitate  continued  hosting  of  publications  launched  during  
the  study,  so  that  the  communities  don’t  just  get  terminated  after  the  study.  This  is  
less  important  for  the  Election  site  but  more  important  for  the  advocacy  site  and  
others.  

Some  possible  partners  include:  

• Obama  Election  News:  Politico,  The  Times  or  a  media  organization  covering  
the  campaign  whose  feeds  we  could  feature  in  the  newswire.  
• College-­oriented  News:  Local  university  communications  departments,  local  
weeklies  and  daily  newspapers  moving  online  in  and  around  Minnesota.  
• Global  Warming:  Advocacy  organizations  WeCanSolveIt.org  or  350.org  or  
green  media  organizations  that  don’t  have  a  Facebook  presence  e.g.  Grist  or  
World  Changing  
• Real  World  Community:  A  group  such  as  Restoring  Eden5,  a  religious  group  
organizing  youth  offline  to  preserve  the  environment.    
• Entertainment:  Perhaps  MTV  (another  Knight  grantee)  or  seek  out  an  
entertainment  brand  that  doesn’t  have  a  Facebook  presence  e.g.  VH1  Best  
Week  Ever,  or  something  fun  and  video  oriented  such  as  the  upcoming  
Freaky  Weather  (http://freakyweather.agentic.ca/)  

Marketing  Strategy  
The  quality  of  the  research  will  correlate  to  the  speed  with  which  we  can  grow  each  
Facebook  publication  into  a  viable  community.  We’ll  apply  the  following  approaches  
for  marketing  each  publication:  

• Targeted  demographic  advertising  on  Facebook  to  supporters  of  the  Obama  
page  et  al.  –  this  is  where  the  primary  marketing  budget  will  be  applied.  
Stronger  partnership  development  will  allow  us  to  spend  less  on  marketing.  
• Working  with  partners  to  co-­‐promote  to  their  membership  or  audience  
• Viral  features  of  the  application  on  Facebook  
• General  PR  effort  and  opportunities  by  NewsCloud  and  UMN  leveraging  
partners  and  the  Knight  Foundation  where  appropriate.  
• Guerilla  marketing  e.g.  flyers,  tabling,  t-­‐shirts  and  sticker  giveaways  
• Leveraging  NewsCloud.com  members,  existing  NewsCloud  Facebook  
application  members  and  Jeff  Reifman’s  professional  online  network.  

Application  Features  And  Software  Architecture  

The  core  feature  set  of  the  application  will  include  a  front  page,  an  upcoming  stories  
page,  a  newswire  page  and  a  user  profile/clippings  page.  This  will  include  features  
such  as  community  announcements,  comments,  voting,  comment  rating,  story  
posting,  user  ranking  and  tagging.  

                                                                                                               
5  Peter  Illyn,  Restoring  Eden  

http://www.grist.org/comments/dispatches/2003/03/10/illyn-­‐restoringeden/  
 
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The  application  will  also  support  standard  Facebook  application  features  such  as  
profile  box,  application  tab,  opt-­‐in  email  and  email  engine,  mini-­‐feed  templates,  
invitations,  directory  presence  and  sharing.    

The  technology  to  enable  this  would  be  an  extension  of  the  existing  NewsCloud  
Facebook  application.  Currently,  the  NewsCloud  Facebook  application  is  tied  to  the  
NewsCloud  server  and  talks  directly  to  its  database.  Ideally,  we’ll  have  enough  
resources  to  build  a  layer  of  the  newsroom  module  architecture  that  would  support  
the  decoupling  of  the  Facebook  application  so  that  groups  would  eventually  be  able  
to  host  these  publications  on  their  own  server.  This  will  also  support  a  future  open  
source  development  release  of  the  Facebook  publication  framework.  

Some  new  feature  development  will  be  required  e.g.  filtering  by  age,  supporting  the  
new  design,  the  Street  Team  incentives,  academic  statistical  requirements,  
compliance  with  research  regulations,  et  al.  

Challenges  
Essentially,  we’re  building,  launching  and  studying  these    publications  –  each  with  
the  inherent  complexities  of  design,  development,  marketing,  branding,  outreach  
and  support.  The  relative  maturity  and  activity  level  in  each  community  will  be  
important  to  enabling  successful  research.  One  or  more  community  concepts  may  
flop.  Therefore,  it  will  be  important  to  gather  data  on  the  users’  experience  with  
each  publication,  especially  from  those  who  do  not  engage  to  understand  why  not  
and  what  could  be  improved.  

From  a  technical  perspective,  we  want  to  run  all  the  publications  from  one  software  
code  base  to  avoid  forking  the  code6  and  having  to  maintain  multiple  code  bases.  
This  is  desirable  in  part  because  the  Facebook  platform  changes  so  quickly  and  in  
part  because  it  provides  the  opportunity  to  open  source  a  single,  feature-­‐complete  
code  base  at  a  future  date.  

While  geared  for  rapid,  stepwise,  and  focused  study,  the  proposed  pacing  may  be  
too  quick  for  what  we’re  trying  to  accomplish,  challenging  the  development  and  
marketing  effort  as  well  as  the  researchers.  Partner  development  and  dependence  
on  partnerships  may  at  time  hinder  progress.    

This  project  is  not  just  a  static  web  site  but  requires  an  ongoing  service  and  support  
structure.  Publishers  (and  readers)  will  have  questions,  feature  requests,  problem  
reports  and  we  will  need  to  be  responsive.  The  quality  of  their  experience  with  the  
application  and  with  us  will  influence  its  success.  

While  I  am  generally  able  to  find  new  employees  and  contractors  quickly,  hiring  the  
people  needed  in  time  to  launch  the  Obama  news  site  in  September  will  be  an  added  
challenge.  

                                                                                                               
6  Software  fork:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_(software_development)  

 
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Alignment  with  NewsCloud  Goals  
This  study  will  be  generally  supportive  of  NewsCloud’s  overall  goals:  

• The  study  will  help  us  identify  features  that  work  at  engaging  new  users,  
which  we  will  be  able  to  apply  to  NewsCloud.com  and  its  other  platforms.  
• Increased  resources  will  make  the  project  more  sustainable  and  support  the  
improvement  of  the  underlying  architecture  for  Facebook  and  our  Web  
Services  API.  The  resources  will  also  support  the  development  of  new  
features  such  as  the  Street  Team  rewards  program,  enhanced  video  features,  
et  al.  
• The  opportunity  to  fund  partner  relationships  will  help  NewsCloud  assess  
the  ability  of  its  technology  to  support  mission-­‐driven  organizations.  
• The  Facebook  publications  should  drive  increased  traffic  and  activity  (both  
new  users,  more  diverse  stories  and  deeper  discussions)  across  the  
NewsCloud  universe  of  sites.  
• The  relationship  with  the  Knight  Foundation  and  the  academic  relationship  
with  the  University  of  Minnesota  will  be  supportive  of  our  other  fund  raising  
and  public  relations  efforts.  
• The  project  should  help  to  position  NewsCloud  more  as  a  thought  leader  in  
the  new  media  community,  especially  in  terms  of  social  networking  and  
Facebook  capacity.  

 
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Budget,  Resources  and  Funding  Structure  
The  budget  below  is  a  preliminary  estimate  for  only  phase  one  of  the  project.  Costs  
may  vary  depending  on  final  project  scope,  form  and  direction  of  grant  (through  
fiscal  sponsor)  and/or  UMN  regulations.  

  Phase  One  
Technology  role  and  costs    
Project  manager,  software  architect:  Reifman   $45,000  
Software  developer   $42,500  
Outreach,  Customer  support   $32,500  
Contract  software  development  (as  needed)   $15,000  
Contract  system  administration  (as  needed)   $5,000  
Marketing,  PR   $15,000  
Graphic  design   $10,000  
Travel     $2,000  
Web  hosting     $720  
Technology  Sub-­total     $167,720  
   
Academic  role  and  costs    
Principal  Investigator/Research  Consultant   $18,720  
Graduate  Assistant   $16,895  
Research  Subjects  Stipends   $6,000  
Travel  /Dissemination   $3,000  
Phone,  project  support     $100  
Research  Advisory   $1,500  
Reserve  for  University  Indirect  Costs7   $8,939  
Academic  Sub-­total   $55,154  
   
Reserve  for  fiscal  sponsor  administrative  costs8   $11,144  
Phase  one  total   $234,018  
 
It  is  understood  that  Mr.  Reifman  will  spend  a  portion  of  his  time  on  general  
capacity  building  and  maintenance  for  the  overall  NewsCloud  project.  

The  cost  estimate  for  phase  two  is  likely  to  be  comparable;  however,  running  the  
street  team  incentive  publication  and  an  additional  trial  publication  may  have  some  
additional  costs.  

As  this  is  a  research  study  and  not  a  direct  investment  in  capacity  building  at  
NewsCloud,  I  would  prefer  to  structure  the  funding  as  a  grant.  NewsCloud  may  be  
able  to  ask  ONE/Northwest  to  act  as  a  fiscal  sponsor.  There  may  be  alternate  
structural  funding  options  within  UMN.  
                                                                                                               
7  Assumes  lowest  rate  of  32%,  rate  could  be  as  high  as  51%  
8  If  needed.  Estimated  at  5%.  

 
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Development  Schedule  
 
Month  1  (ideally  August  ’08  to  launch  two  months  ahead  of  November  election)  

• Hire  development,  outreach  staff  and  design  contractor  

• Work  with  UMN  research  team  to  define  application  requirements  and  
outreach  strategy  
• Develop  Election  publication  from  NewsCloud  Facebook  application  code  
• Begin  recruiting  partners  

Month  2  

• Launch  Election  publication,  including  marketing/PR  efforts  

• Continue  marketing,  support  of  Election  community  
• Begin  development  of  College  News  publication  
• Continue  recruiting  partners  for  College  News  publication  
• Continue  development  of  overall  code  base,  features,  bug  fixing  in  Election  
application  

Month  3  –  4  

• Launch  College  News  publication  

• Ongoing  feature  development,  bug  fixing,  support  for  each  publication  
• Continue  marketing  and  PR  efforts  for  each  publication  
• Support  UMN  researchers  with  their  study  work  
• Begin  discussions  with  Knight  Foundation  for  Phase  Two  funding  

Month  5-­‐6  

• Ongoing  feature  development,  bug  fixing,  support  for  each  publication  

• Continue  marketing  and  PR  efforts  for  each  publication  
• Solidify  open  source  components  and  documentation  of  Facebook  
publication  applications  
• Prepare  technology  post-­‐mortem  for  Phase  One  
• Support  UMN  researchers  with  their  study  work  
• Begin  design  and  specification  for  Phase  Two  publications  

Research  Schedule  
 
Months  1-­‐3  
• Refine  and  agree  on  research  questions  
• Develop  valid  survey  instruments,  which  involve  brief  lit  review  to  inform  
valid  survey  design  and  getting  feedback  from  advisory  group;  pilot  testing  
with  small  group  of  college  age  participants  
• Secure  Institutional  Review  Board  approval  for  work  with  human  subjects  (6  
week  process;  process  goes  much  smoother  if  subjects  are  18  years  of  age  or  
older!)  
 
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 • Set  up  survey  in  survey  monkey,  etc.  
 
Month  4  &  5  
• Send  recruiting  email/message  to  publication  users;  survey  incentive  will  
help  get  a  higher  response  rate.    
• Recruit  for  focus  groups  ($50  incentive)  
• Provide  3  week  window  for  subjects  to  take  the  survey  –  weekly  reminders  
• Analyze  survey  data  –  trends/questions  to  follow-­‐up  on  in  focus  groups  
• Do  data  dump  of  internal  statistical  tracking  –  inform  focus  group  questions  
• Conduct  focus  groups  and  transcribe  data  AFTER  survey  completion  &  look  
at  site  stats  
• Analyze  focus  group  data  
 
Month  6  -­‐  8  
• Review  survey,  focus  group  and  internal  site-­‐tracking  data  analysis  
• Write  up  report  for  publication  on  (1)  what  engages  users;  (2)  what  does  this  
“engagement”  look  like  (3)  How  did  the  publication  contribute  to  the  mission  
of  the  organization.  

 
Contact  Information  
Questions  or  comments  about  this  proposal  may  be  sent  to  Jeff  Reifman  
(jeff@newscloud.com)  or  Dr.  Christine  Greenhow  (greenhow@umn.edu).  

 
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