Friday, December 12, 2008

UBC VFM status & future

I sent this email to the AMS execs this morning:

from Mark Latham

to Michael Duncan ,
Stefanie Ratjen ,
Tristan Markle ,
Alex Lougheed ,
Chris Diplock

cc Bruce Krayenhoff, Matt Naylor, Kyle Warwick

date Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 10:42 AM

subject VFM status & future


TO: AMS Executive Committee

I'm grateful to the AMS for working with me on voter funded media test implementations for the past two years. I've learned a lot about what works and what doesn't, and am now designing the next-generation VFM platform. It'll probably take a few months before we roll out the first release of that – I'll let you know.

Meanwhile I plan to continue sponsoring and administering VFM at UBC, at least until the next AMS election, which I guess will be about the end of January 2009. During January, I'll sponsor $200 per week of awards. You (or the AMS Elections Committee) may want to consider funding an increase in those awards, to give UBC media more incentive.

You may also want to consider funding VFM beyond January 2009. If you fund it, I'm willing to administer it. But even without awards, I might continue with a monthly vote on UBC media ranking.

UBC VFM info page: http://votermedia.org/ubc

VoterMedia Democracy Blog: http://votermedia.blogspot.com

-- Mark

=====================================
Mark Latham - Founder, VoterMedia.org
"Media for voters, funded by voters."
Email: mark[at]votermedia.org
=====================================


Thursday, December 11, 2008

UBC awards update

Today I tallied the votes for the UBC media/blog awards -- results & other info at http://votermedia.org/ubc.

Heart of Eden won $10 today for a total of $190 since 2008-09-25, but has now dropped out of the UBC VoterMedia Awards.

Future UBC vote tally dates will be January 8, 15, 22 and 29.

Monday, December 1, 2008

First B.C. Politics Blog Ranking

Today I tallied the votes in the new British Columbia Politics Blog Ranking (successor to the Vancouver Election Blog Awards as described here).

Congratulations to The Vancouver Observer for its dramatic rise into first place! And please welcome seven blogs added to the ballot.

Next monthly tally and reranking will be on January 1. Please vote about once a month; we'll count your latest vote.

While we are developing the next generation web platform for this ranking, we may hold off on adding more blogs to the list. Possible funding of future awards is also on hold pending release of the new platform and development of funding sources and infrastructure. Developments will be announced on this blog...