There are 16 competitively-selected people vying for a small grant to help start up their own new media business idea.  This program was conceived by a program officer at The Ford Foundation who, (like me), constantly looks at the landscape and wonders, "So, what's NOT there?"  Me?  I'm the implementation guy.

Most work I am involved in was originally thought up by someone else.  I get hired to make it happen. Still, after years of willingly sitting off to the side, I came to believe it was time to create something.  I became the entrepreneur inside the company.  Ten years ago I committed to running with an idea conceived by a gang of over-achieving college students and turned into a nationally recognized program.

I come out of the non-profit media space.  The NPR program I created and ran for 10 years was developed with a couple of basic principles:

(1) Who's not there?

(2) Why are they not there?

(3) What are we gonna do about it? (most important)

It's 2010 and the game has changed.  There's still much discussion on who and what is missing in media.  New tech means new ways of storytelling and faster distribution of ideas. Still, there are ideas and the people behind those ideas who are not seen or heard.

Technically, I'm barely a "boomer," but I have always believed I was supposed to be Gen X.  I have a firm understanding of the past and empathize when people my age complain about economic and educational inequality, missed opportunities within traditional media and a legion of other cultural barriers that prevent upward mobility.  Still, I'm mostly about solutions.  I listen and then always ask, "So, what ARE we going to do about it?

Today, "we" have to understand the language of commerce, technology and efficiency.  And, as we continue to push for highly diversified newsrooms, the opportunity exists for anyone to start up their own thing.  

The New U: News Entrepreneurs Working Through UNITY is a program that found 16 people willing to risk almost everything just to get started on a dream.  They are Native American/First Nations, hispanic, black, Asian-American.  They are 1st generation of FOB's.  They are monolingual, bilingual and trilingual.  They are multi-racial and share a single-minded purpose. And, until this Sunday October 17 at midnight, they are asking you to review their business idea and cast a vote in support

This message was brought you on behalf of...

 "Rule Breakers Incorporated.  Taking a pass on asking for a permission slip to creativity since earlier this year."