Description
The project drafted by the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism and its partners aims to develop the organizational capacity of a collaborative laboratory through experimentation with technologies and digital tools, with the aim of producing and promoting free, relevant and verifiable content of public interest. We address a real need: the lack of public interest information. We aim to transform an existing informal network and connect disparate organizations that worked with various means, but all aimed the same direction. The Coalition will improve its core activities. Sponge will produce a publishing platform and an internal platform for the project management and coalition members. The project will produce a knowledge base and develop technology applications which will release relevant information inside the framework of innovative events, such as hackathons.
Summary of project results
Sponge is a hub that connects existing networks and groups of journalists, coders, designers and activists which produce tools, secure communication, engage communities and develop further this information exchange platform. Transparency and openness of information are the main values that drive the existence of Sponge, and through this first grant they consolidated their structure. The platform’s consolidated independency and structure helps produce more and more relevant and verifiable content of public interest. The network created through the project developed the organisational capability of this media Laboratory in a decentralized and transparent manner and transformed disparate groups into a structured and functional interdisciplinary community. Some key numbers, highlighting Lab’s activity through the project, are: over 60 meetings organised with the Sponge members, aiming to fortify organizational capabilities; organisational workflow elaborated (which entails weekly meetings, a digital communication platform for recording such meetings, and an external communication php list). Sponge tackled more than 12 monthly topics so far and instrumented over 20 workshops and events. 50 blog posts on thesponge.eu were produced and 6 hack events were organised. Network members created 16 digital tools that: solve communication and organisational needs for groups of journalists/activists without technical skills; solve data gathering and data processing needs; facilitate direct electronic interaction between citizens and authorities. Sponge was involved in a number of advocacy actions, collecting almost 1900 signatures from Romania and worldwide on a petition regarding deficient legislation in Romania on cybersecurity and they contributed to blocking this legislation by the Constitutional Court. Over 550 people have directly participated in the events organised during project activities. The Sponge team adopted and debated 'Killswitch', a movie within the One World Romania documentary festival. The team also organized the Sponge anniversary event, where they presented their most important projects and the road-map for the future. Sponge was presented as an innovative organisational model at various conferences in Europe and the United States and was shortlisted for the European Press Prize Innovation Award. Sponge was elected as partner by one of the leaders in digital transparency related projects, US based Sunlight Foundation.
Summary of bilateral results