Selected Talk by Andreea Bonea and Stefan Candea, at the European Data Forum 2013, 10 April 2013 in Dublin, Ireland: Sponge - media innovation lab

1. thesponge.euthesponge.eu

2. “Connecting existing networks and communities of
media related visionaries, by experimenting with
evolutionary hacks to foster and harvest relevant
information in Eastern Europe”
Mission statement

3. What?
SPONGE came to life in 2011, and is a media innovation lab, experimenting with
evolutionary hacks to foster and harvest relevant information in Eastern Europe.
It has a lateral hierarchy structure, connecting existing networks of specialists, independent
groups and communities of investigative journalists, coders, designers, activists and legal
experts, local universities and students.
Where?
The lab is located in Bucharest, Romania.
This strategic location allows for a broader reach into the Black Sea and the Balkan regions,
in a country that is already becoming a major technology hub in the market.
Main goals
SPONGE’s primary goal is to develop a community of media innovators, and change the
perspective on how relevant information is gathered and disseminated. This can be achieved
by an open collaborative process between the stakeholders.
SPONGE is invested in understanding and improving the ways everyday people are making
use of data and information on and off-line.
What?
Where?
Main goals

4. SPONGE is the brainchild of the Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism
(established in 2001, covering Romania & the Black Sea Region, member of the Global
Investigative Journalism Network)
Co-founders of this project are:
Ceata Foundation - promoting free software, technologies and art (ceata.org)
Geo-spatial.org – promoting open source software with focus on mapping tools
ActiveWatch – advocating for freedom of expression and freedom of the press
(activewatch.ro)
University of Bucharest - School of Political Studies (fspub.unibuc.ro)
ApTI - Association for Internet and Technology (apti.ro)
ROSedu - Open source software student community (rosedu.org)
Who?

5. The Bucharest Open Media Challenge (OMC)
OMC an event funded by Knight-Mozilla Open News, facilitated the writing of code and
implementation of design, solving problems pertaining to open data aggregation &
visualization.
It's main goal was to promote information sharing and interdisciplinary collaboration
for the civic good, as well as building a diverse community around Open Data, within the
Eastern European space.
This collaborative hacking initiative, brought together professionals from different fields of
activity (Coders, Designers, Journalists, Legal Experts and Activists) and was a first in the
Eastern European region.
OMC had over 60 participants, spanned across two days and had several interesting
presentations. Coders, Designers, Journalists and Activists from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine,
Kazakhstan, Moldova and Romania submitted over 20 proposals and worked hard to bring
these great ideas to life. Out of these 10 ideas were developed and 8 delivered a
working App or tool. Total budget: USD 3k
Some of these initiatives are turning into more robust projects, that SPONGE is shepherding
towards becoming more scalable (see http://omc.thesponge.eu/2012/Entry_list)
Projects

6. Phase 1
Transform SPONGE into a fully operational lab, by organizing recurring meetings &
Workshops between its network members and specialists, on pre-defined open data related
topics.
Workshops will be organized on a monthly basis, where a leading role will be played by
interested student bodies, participating and shaping up a 'hands on' educational process.
These workshops are meant to encourage and promote the production of content (text, code,
design), and will subsequently morph into scalable apps and tools.
The work of the lab (i.e. projects and processes) will be published on an online platform,
allowing for a broad, cross-cultural participation. The ultimate goal is to turn this platform into
a robust knowledge base, around relevant information gathering and dissemination.
Phase 2
Turn SPONGE into a replicable model for smaller or larger interdisciplinary communities
working on open data.
.
RoadMap

7. You can endorse us in many ways:
• Join the SPONGE network and contribute with knowledge and ideas, or get involved
with conferences, workshops, hackathons
• Partner with us on specific projects.
• Facilitate research fellowships for our young professionals and internships for our
specialists
• Endorse our public events and publications
• Donate time, knowledge, or money.
What's in it for you?
• Gain direct access to a pool of innovative ideas.
• Connect with ‘best of breed’ media specialists and scientists, creating revolutionary
data solutions.
• Have the ability to propose research topics to the lab members.
• Participate in shaping up and designing the Eastern European open data
infrastructure.
• Establish a strong presence in the emerging open data markets.
• Knowledge swap between organizations.
How can I help?

8. What we can do:
OffshoreLeaks:
(80+ journo, 40+ media, RCIJ was the research hub for Eastern
Europe)
We want to follow the model and methodology and extend it from journalists to
cross-border collaborative experiments involving similar networks from other fields
RoadMap

9. RoadMap

10. Showcase
PolitcalColours.ro & HartaPoliticii.ro
(mapping, social tracking)
Brings together maps for local elections, Chamber of Deputies, Senate and statistics
Integration with hartapoliticii.ro (similar accountability project)
Winner of the Open Media Challenge in october 2012 (omc.thesponge.eu/2012/)
Source for both:
- https://github.com/thesponge/politicalcolours
- https://github.com/pistruiatul/hartapoliticii
RoadMap

11. RoadMap

12. RoadMap

13. RoadMap

14. RoadMap

15. Showcase
PolitcalColours.ro & HartaPoliticii.ro
(mapping, social tracking)
Without any “marketing” instantly taken over by mainstream media:
• online main news portal,
• main news agency,
• main news TV
• and one of the leading newspaers
• University of Bucharest - students build on top, participate or study
build on top of the code or clone the ideas
JOB TO BE DONE: elections in December 2012
RoadMap

16. RoadMap

17. RoadMap

18. ONGOING WORK (15+)
- Entries (mapping: agriculture subsidies, freedom of expression violations,
straigh dogs, violence against protesters), secure decentralized share of indexed
databases, self-publishing app, MediaWatch, public records database
- After: Bielarus illegal foreign exchange tool (Prokopovi.ch); Romanian
Legislation online (hambar109.ro)
- Other: knowledge exchange platform, add-on for content modification for
organizations, wifi mash-up anonymous public network in Bucharest
GOAL
Build a community while working in collaboration – educate each other on relevant
information.
ECOSYSTEM
INTERDISCIPLINARY: journalism, code, activism, design, legal expertise
LATERAL: student, junior, volunteer, professional // hiperlocal, local, national,
regional, international
NEEDS
- Partner with universities / labs
- Resources for basic experiments & for Sponge collaborative publication platform
RoadMap

19. Q&A
Andreea Boneea,
andreea@thesponge.eu
Stefan Candea,
stefan@thesponge.eu
slideshare.net/crji/final-sponge2013dataforum