NewCo News
NYU’s Jay Rosen, longtime press critic and democracy advocate, is, as he puts it, stepping “out of the press box and onto the field” to work on “NewCo,” the as-yet unnamed new venture in digital journalism being led by Pierre Omidyar and Glenn Greenwald.
Other NewCo new staff, CNet reports: Eric Bates of Rolling Stone, independent journalism Ryan Devereaux, Electronic Frontier Foundation staff technologist Micah Lee, freelance foreign policy writer Murtaza Hussain, and sports writer Andrew Jerell Jones.
Three 20-something coders were having trouble figuring out their own health care options, so they created HealthSherpa using data from HealthCare.gov to tell consumers what plans are available to them, the New York Times reports.
MomsRising, the liberal parents advocacy group started by MoveOn co-founder Joan Blades, is going local and encouraging its members to find “MomsRising Near You.”
The bankrupt town of Central Falls, Rhode Island, population 19,000, is partnering with Citizinvestor, the crowdfunding startup, to raise the money to clean up a historic park, the Boston Globe reports.
Two German Green Party politicians make the case for giving Edward Snowden asylum there.
Australia tried to listen in on the mobile phone of Indonesia’s president, leaked NSA documents obtained by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Guardian Australia reveal.
Senator Chuck Schumer (D-Media) released one of his patented Sunday newsmakers, calling for an extension to the current ban on using 3-D printing to make a firearm, which is soon to expire.
Are MOOCs moot? Sebastian Thrun, founder of Udacity, tells Fast Company’s Max Chafkin, “We don’t educate people as others wished, or as I wished. We have a lousy product.”
Plus, What I Couldn’t Resist Reading, Despite Being on “Book Surge” Last Week:
Nancy Scola on Uber, “The Black Car Company That People Love to Hate.”
Nate Matias live-blogs Jillian York of the EFF in conversation with Ethan Zuckerman of MIT’s Center for Civic Media on “Making Sense of the NSA Files.”
Ethan zuckerman on “Remembering Aaron: activism and the effective citizen.”
The Washington Post’s Brian Fung on DC’s “exploding startup scene.”
Ray Dearborn of Upwell.us explaining “Why Did ‘The Ocean is Broken’ Go Viral?”
Columbia grad student launches “Protestify,” an interactive app that combines videos and photos from global protests.
Mark Ames and Yasha Levine of NSFWCorp tackle “The extraordinary Pierre Omidyar.”
Next City’s Anna Clark reports on Chicago’s plans to take participatory budgeting city-wide.