1. voci.us building communities around news

2. Team Members  Dan Berenholtz  Venkat Dinavahi  Evelyn Larrubia  Thomas Kong

3. Initial Idea  Centralized online platform to discuss news events  Smart, informed audience  Use social media identity  Comment on any story  News media as key partners

4. Business Model Canvas # 1 News Sites -Talking to Users and Large News Sites -Finding AI developer -Drafting Mockups -Developing Site Users -Providing central place for individuals to connect with other readers about news stories News Partners -Taking away burden of policing comments -Enabling communication among their readers -Driving traffic Advertisers -Financial Co-creation -Partnerships w/ News Sites -Large user base -Human Resources -The web -Social Networks -News Sites -Multi-sided platform -CPM Ad revenue-Fixed Costs -Variable Costs

5. What We Did  Surveyed users  Interviewed users  Talked to six large newspapers and chains  Executives  Editors  Legal Staff  Started drawing mockups and building the site  What is the MVP?  Drupal vs. Ning. Vs. Wordpress

6. What We Found News consumers  Want to engage in dialogue  Lack of civility prevents engagement  Want real identities Large news sites  Fed up with trash talk  Hesitant to drive traffic off their sites  Not legally responsible for readers’ posts  Slow to change

8. Business Model Canvas # 2 -News Sites (waiting on Stanford Review’s decision) -Developing site -Talking to small News sites -Testing viral features -Talking to users Users -Engaging in high-level conversations about news articles with like- minded individuals and friends -Bookmarking articles News Partners -Demographic data -More eyeballs due to viral elements -Shared ad revenue Advertisers -Reaching educated, high- income individuals -Co-creation -Large user base -Human Resources -Potentially news partnerships -The web -Social Networks -Potentially News Sites -Email -Peer-to-peer invitations -Multi-sided platform -CPM Ad revenue-Web site programming, design, and maintenance; salaries related to business activities and site monitoring

9. What We Did  Talked to smaller news sites  Mountain View Voice  The Modesto Bee  The Daily Herald  The Stanford Review  The Stanford Daily  Talked to more users  Ethnographic studies of face-to-face conversations  Tested moderation  Continued building site  MVP completed  Improved UI  Analytics

10. What We Found Users  Like the mockups  Slow to migrate to new platforms  More likely to share than discuss articles  Moderation created more robust conversations Small news sites  Interested in leveraging social media  Interested in demographic data  Slow to make decisions  Have deficient IT infrastructures

13. -News Sites* (Stanford Review rejects partnership) (Stanford Daily wants to be involved) *We are exploring ways to become less reliant on news partnerships -Brainstorming ways to become less reliant on news sites -Continuing site development -Testing viral features Users -Engaging in high-level conversations about news articles with like- minded individuals and friends -Bookmarking articles News Partners -Demographic data -More eyeballs due to viral elements -Shared ad revenue Advertisers -Reaching educated, high-income individuals -Co-creation -Large user base -Human Resources -Potentially news partnerships -The web -Social Networks -Potentially News Sites -Email -Peer-to-peer invitations -Multi-sided platform -CPM Ad revenue-Web site programming, design, and maintenance; salaries related to business activities and site monitoring

14. Conclusion  News partnerships are a slow process  Don’t want users to leave their site  Are slow to make decisions  Users are not engaged  Empty room effect  Potential solutions  Focus on a niche community  Recommend active conversations  Technology  Was Drupal necessary?  Focus on testing community, not features

15. The End