Sally Duros

How My Mission Became Finding a New Funding Model for Digital News

On March 31, 2009, the Chicago Sun-Times declared bankruptcy, and some ideas I’d been floating about the future of news caught the attention of a few producers. As a result, I was invited to appear on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight and ABC 7 News to discuss my thinking. I believed the traditional news sector was deeply in peril, and that journalism as we knew it was transforming into a “constellation” of digital newsrooms. Financially energizing that start-up news sector, I believed, would be program-related investments from foundations—made easier to deploy by a new legal structure called the L3C newsroom.

I was half right. Read on to learn more about that.

As a result, for nearly two decades, my mission has been reducing noise, increasing credible sources of information, and adding value to our professional and community lives through digital newsrooms.

Here’s how I found that mission.

Chicago City Hall culture change is harder than it looks

I left business journalism in the ’90s to go into Chicago city government—my reasoning was mission-based: why write about good government when I could help create it? But it’s no surprise that the mission turned out to be more complex than I’d anticipated.

After serving in the offices of Mayor Richard M. Daley and CPS CEO Paul Vallas, I left public service with a hard-won understanding of the difficulties of culture change — and a front-row view of how the rapid shrinkage of newspaper newsrooms was already undermining the public’s access to vital information.

Along the way, through several projects I had worked on – including establishing the Children First Fund: the Chicago Public Schools Foundation – I had also developed a top-level perspective on philanthropy, the way foundations operate and how they carry out their commitments to their missions and social change. And I was deeply passionate about developing new tools on the Web.

Journalism and NPO status seemed a bad fit

That path led me into mission-based community engagement and fundraising. That work left me genuinely uncertain whether journalists were cut out for the non-profit world and its relentless cycles of fundraising. I also thought it was important that newsrooms be able to take a stand on candidates in elections. NPO newsrooms cannot.

That question was weighing heavily when the Sun-Times laid me off in 2008. For years I had worked with web entrepreneurs and mission-based businesses and nonprofits to build the social web. My journalism background seemed a good fit for the crusade to save it.

When I learned about the L3C — an investment vehicle that promised to be designed to encourage foundations to make program-related investments in mission-based businesses — I connected the dots between news and mission and found a cause I could fully get behind. I plugged into a colleague running the now defunct HuffPost Chicago, who gave me a column.

I began writing about what I called the L3C Newsroom and regularly delivering information on this, PRIs and other emerging ideas to foundation executives and others working in the digital newsroom space. I built a robust social media presence on the topic of emerging business models for news and was among the first journalists on LinkedIn to actively work that professional network on the business of civic and local digital news.

In 2010, I recorded this video on the idea of an L3C Newsroom — similar to a crowdfunded newsroom, with a community foundation leading the way for smaller family foundations to provide core investment for local independent newsrooms. The video was for a very early and unsuccessful kickstarter.

A video I recorded in 2010 on the idea of an L3C Newsroom, similar to the idea of a crowdfunded newsroom with a community foundation leading the way for smaller family foundations to provide core investments for local independent newsrooms.

Self-sustenance through newsroom fundraising and experimentation

During this time, I also consulted with clients such as the Better Government Association, as an organizational development and fundraising consultant, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for its new team and operations. Understanding the vast news and information deserts in Chicago — from my time working in newsrooms and in Chicago city government — I took on multimedia consulting and project management with LISC Chicago, bringing neighborhood voices into the mix through a series of mobile neighborhood tours. As a community service, I produced a companion Twitter feed and Facebook page. Other clients from those years include the Chicago Tribune’s social media boutique 435 Digital (Facebook artifact here) the Block by Block Community News Network (TimeMachine here)and Knight Digital Media Center.

I carved out a small but passionate niche as an advocate for sustainable local media. The L3C idea fell more rapidly into the past as I followed Chicago’s diminishing news streams more closely and observed innovative ideas here and nationwide. Over the years, that concept had long ceased to be my catalyst, but I still believe that journalism and news need to be self-supporting businesses.

News needed patient capital from foundations; not a new legal structure

So, yes, it turns out I was wrong about the L3C. The L3C label obscured my basic premise: the need for long-term investments such as PRIs by foundations. The L3C label provides no shortcut or safe harbor. It has taken time, emotional healing and distance, and new research tools to clarify my view and remove those clouds. Mea culpa.

In 2016, I conducted a research project on Chicagos Independent News ecosystem. Sadly, that project was cut short when I experienced a family emergency. I became my father’s caregiver when he began failing in 2016; he died in 2017. Shortly afterward, in 2018, my life partner unexpectedly died on the day I moved into the house I and my brother and sister had inherited from my father. It has taken me eight years to be capable of writing that previous sentence.

I was very grateful for the paid work outside this sphere that came my way shortly after these sad events. It was difficult to think about the sustainable news work I had done previously. I had witnessed the suffering of many good-hearted people trying to keep their local news streams alive. Their suffering moved me to tears. The break down of civic fibers leading to Democracy was becoming more and more evident.

My heart was broken into shattered shards of work and love, and life purpose.

That said, I am grateful for the many opportunities that have come my way since 2018 to participate in the journalism world here in Chicago. When I enter these rooms, I feel like I am home. There appears to be an openness that did not exist in the past.

Meanwhile, an entire new ecosystem of integrated editorial platforms like Substack has emerged, as has the concept of Catalytic Capital. A mind-boggling array of associations, projects, audience development tools, funding mechanisms have emerged in what was at one time a sleepy fringe ecosystem.

Catalytic Capital: Long term patient capital for news

The emergence of Catalytic Capital for news makes clear that my advocacy for long-term patient capital from foundations was correct. AI-tool Claude tells me that catalytic capital is the broad umbrella concept for any capital that’s more patient, risk-tolerant, or subordinate than the market rate. This patient capital unlocks other investments, much like the tranches in what I called the L3C newsroom. PRIs are a specific legal tool that foundations use to deploy catalytic capital while satisfying IRS payout rules.

Separately, Tracy Baim, among others, have taken the lead on the newsroom sustainability front here in Chicago.

Through Press Forward, a coalition of 130 funders is investing more than $500 million over five years to revitalize local news; as of 2026 the initiative has disbursed more than $400 million through 46 local chapters nationwide. The two largest funders are the MacArthur Foundation — $175 million committed, including $48 million in initial grants and a further $20 million in December 2024 — and the Knight Foundation — a $150 million anchor investment. Other founding partners include the Carnegie Corporation at $5 million, the Hewlett Foundation at $10 million, Ford Foundation, Democracy Fund, Heising-Simons Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation, Joyce Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Lumina Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Lenfest Institute, and the Archewell Foundation, among others.

Press Forward Chicago (cct.org), the local chapter housed at the Chicago Community Trust and led by Tracy Baim, has a $20 million five-year goal and has disbursed more than $4.3 million to 37 local news organizations as of 2026.

Separately, a group of Chicago-focused funders — The McCormick Foundation, Driehaus Foundation, Chicago Community Trust, Field Foundation, Polk Brothers Foundation and the Democracy Fund, have created the Chicago Independent Media Alliance (CIMA). I have been happy to attend a few of their meetings.

Chicago Community Showcase for LISC Chicago.
This playlist is a series of audio slide shows I produced with community leaders to be delivered through an early Smartphone app. It is the core content of the Chicago Community Showcase YouTube channel. I ran a Facebook community and Twitter feed for several years as a public service but they are now dormant.

The Accountability Newsroom

The Accountability Newsroom uses social journalism tools to connect residents’ needs with frontline workers to co-create an honest organizational culture and improve services.

Give employees a real voice for change and they won’t need to grouse so loudly. Give bosses the view from the front lines and — one would hope — they might change what really matters instead of what is politically expedient.

The desired outcome is government more responsive to the public, more invigorating for employees, and more informative to executives seeking to better manage their businesses and agencies.

Organizations and businesses committed to quality principles are moving toward this dashboard of organizational change. I saw potent pieces demonstrated at a gathering of executives exploring the social management tools of Salesforce.com, including Rypple and Chatter, which are reinventing the HR function and flattening old hierarchies.

The social web is a monumental opportunity for changing government. The internal culture — the front lines of an organization — can lead the way and make visible to the leadership at the top of the hierarchy how things go wrong in the process of delivery. The front lines can also show what needs to change internally to make what is delivered right, appropriate, needed and desired. The public can help the front lines manifest that vision, working hand in glove through the social web to make it known.

The work of OpenGov is an enormous start, but it’s not enough, because the most important work — the human work — is not getting done. Work must also begin internally to set straight the gnarled processes that have been created by years of patchwork “solutions,” often fashioned by politicians in response to journalists’ investigations.

Without an effective tool for organizational change, politicians’ and investigative journalists’ claims to cut “waste and red tape” of government are empty and harmful rhetoric. That’s because government “waste” is commonly thought of as the line items in a budget. These lines reflect salaries and benefits to workers — some good, some bad, some necessary, some unnecessary. But in reality, although waste might reside in line items, more often waste resides between the lines, in the processes.

These wasteful processes are often fallout from the usual investigative journalism model, where corrupt politicians are exposed but corrupted systems remain. The corrupt politician points a finger, the fall guy is whisked away, and a patchwork fix is planted over the damaged system, simulating repair to the public eye. In reality, these patchworks often add only paperwork, bureaucracy and cost. They not only make working in government unpleasant — they are also the root cause of most residents’ complaints about services.

This is a May 2013 refinement of the idea for the Accountability Newsroom. I entered a synopsis of this in the 2013 Knight News Challenge. I still think it’s an interesting idea. Others with more resources, technical and otherwise, are working methodically toward similar visions. I believe some government agencies are moving themselves forward toward a vision of being a Social Enterprise. Although these internal efforts won’t have the newsroom aspect of this proposal, I commend them. My best wishes to all working earnestly in this arena to improve government and its services.

The Accountability Newsroom
Presented by Sally Duros
Poynter Institute Digital Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, 2011

In 2007, former Illinois Gov. George Ryan began his prison sentence. In 2012, former Illinois Governor Rod Blagoyevich began a 14 year term in prison for corruption.

What ‘s wrong? Why do investigations cut the weeds but not the roots of corruption.

I see a solution – Facebook meets Undercover Boss in The Accountability Newsroom.

We use social media, journalists, citizens and public employees to uncover government problems and create solutions. TAN takes a tip, confirms it, discusses it and finds a solution.

My name is Sally Duros and I have worked for The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Sun-Times and as a reformer within Chicago city hall. I understand why investigations seldom improve public services.

Everywhere publishers are under pressure to connect the dots between investigation and accountability, to engage audiences and to do more with less. Meanwhile government is in crisis and in some states even shutting down. Newsrooms play an important watchdog role and could help improve government. But traditional investigations don’t get at the root of problems or make it a priority to offer solutions to government inefficiency.

The Accountability Newsroom would change all of that. The Accountability Newsroom uses social media, journalists, citizens and public employees to uncover government problems and create solutions in a kind of ombudsmen role. TAN proposes a unique collaborative system that would move a tip from an employee through confirmation to discussion to solution, while uncovering information appropriate for investigation. On the inside, The Accountability Newsroom would employ six sigma and quality improvement

techniques to fix the processes that are neglected when political will alone is applied to problems.

On the outside of government, TAN shares affinity with the open government movement and the Sunlight Foundation. Others operating in a similar investigative space include the Public Insight Program at American Public Media, which connects expert sources with journalists.

The Accountability Newsroom’s clear public purpose is to use the collaborative power of social media to fix services to the public, improve working conditions within government and provide a better return for the taxpayer dollar. Sally Duros has been an editor for the Chicago Sun-Times, a long-time business journalist and an internal consultant on good government in Chicago city hall.

Sally Duros is a social journalist working toward the next generation of successful, credible online newsrooms.

Ray: a rock in the river

This is my oldest brother, Ray. He’s in characteristic pose, balancing on an old tree limb, above a murky trickle of a creek in a Cook County forest preserve. Ray would scoop mud from the beds of waterways like this and keep it in a jar and watch with fascination what crawled and swam from the oozing mess.

Today would have been Ray’s 72 birthday. As it is, he lived to celebrate only 28 birthdays in his life. He died so long ago, my memories are simply sensory — an image, a smell, a feeling of gladness, happiness or comfort. I recall some key moments. Mostly I recall missing him and now as I look back on the spent years I see mostly how his living and his leaving changed me and changed everything in my family.

Local News Sustainability

August 6, 2026

The Accountability Newsroom
Personal Reflection

June 3, 2020

Ray: a rock in the river

I see Ray in the basement, blowing up plastic models of WWII boats. He’d fashion flame and smoke out of cotton and stick it in the boat stacks and explode the boats with firecrackers in basins of water. And I see Ray bringing home crayfish to live in the basement sink. Ray deeply influenced my reading habits — it was because of him that I read Sartre at the age of 11 and other existential writers way beyond my level of comprehension. He would write creatively and it is probably because of him that I too wanted to be a writer.

Ray was a typical young man of the 60s. One day I and my preteen girl friends hid in my room devouring his Playboys. Behind closed doors, we each held up a copy, pin up unfolded in front of us and wiggled behind the images of full formed women, talking seductively in our squeaky little girl voices.

I recall that when he entered the living room at my parents house he would have the keys out and they would make a jingling noise. He would wash the car with suds on Saturdays and wore a varsity letter sweater from Lane Tech High School (we still have it). Ray loved all creatures without discrimination. I was terrified of spiders, and when I was a preteen Ray captured one in his hands and came toward me, hands folded closed, saying “Don’t be afraid – look! He’s more afraid of you …” I shrieked and went into a panic. It didn’t work. I still don’t like the creepy guys much.

There’s so much to say about Ray and the goodness of him and the sadness we all still feel that he left us so early. In many ways, as my parent’s first born, he was the promise of the family. Seven years older than I, he was the grown up I could talk to.

When I was ready to join the flower power movement at the age of 18 — it was Ray who tried to talk me out if it. I didn’t listen and I went to California with friends. The $100 bill in my shoe lasted only so long and I came home defeated about three months later. That dream was mostly over.

Ray was living on his own then, with a degree in marine biology from the University of Miami. He was married and worked at the same engineering firm as my dad.

I was still adrift in some ways, hungry to feed an adventurer’s heart, traveling out West and back repeatedly. Just three years after my first trip, I was camping at Yellow Pines, a backpacker’s camp in Yosemite Valley. For three days, sadness overwhelmed me during the two mile hike back and forth between the camp and Curry Village. I had called home every day but nobody picked up. Finally on a Thursday night, my baby sister answered. She told me Ray had died. I don’t recall what she said or her voice. I just remember the phone dangling from its cord where I had dropped it. I wailed under the moon, crying to the silver granite cliffs, then hitchhiked a ride to the Fresno Airport and took a plane home at midnight so I could attend Ray’s funeral the next day in Chicago on a steamy Friday, Aug. 13.

Those events changed my life so profoundly. I still struggle to see the path of events and the trail they left.

He left us in a mysterious way, and some day I hope to understand the truth of it.

Today on his birthday, I remember Ray and I remember the beauty of him and what he brought to all of us. I see the seeds of his short good life in the best days of my own.

His life was a rock in the river of my life and the lives of others who loved him. His presence changed the flow of events unpredictably and permanently.

Today on his birthday, I look behind and I look forward. I can see Ray balancing on this log with joy, in that moment, forever.

Audience engagement tools and innovations

P1140336 Some audience engagement tools to check out. Could any of them be useful to you?

HEARKEN IS PUBLIC-POWERED JOURNALISM

“Q: How do JOURNALISTS know the stories they report are stories their COMMUNITY finds relevant?
A: They ask them. And they use HEARKEN to manage engagement”

Listening Post and Curious City. What do you wonder about Chicago, the region and its people? Pose your question to Curious City and we’ll track down answers together, with stories online, in a weekly podcast, and on WBEZ 91.5 FM. Follow what we do — and learn how you can help investigate — on our website, on Facebook, on Twitter and Tumblr.

MediaPublic
What does it mean to be a member of a public radio station in the United States? What could it mean? How could expanding the definition of membership instill a sense of ownership and identity among listeners, allowing them to feel more connected and invested in public media’s content, work and mission? Follow Melody Kramer on GitHub.

Framed by WDET
An audio-visual experience that integrates PHOTOGRAPHY and AUDIO STORYTELLING to tell the story of ETHNIC AND CULTURAL COMMUNITIES throughout metro Detroit.

ChiHackNight
Chicago’s weekly event to build, share & learn about civic tech. “Open data without journalism is public relations.”— Barb Iverson

Blendl
With Blendle, you read all articles from your favorite newspapers and magazines. Without subscribing. Coming soon to a locality near you.

New developments
Here in Chicago, City Bureau, SmartChicago and Invisible Institute have developed the Task Force Tracker.
Using an excel sheet and Genius, a team of City Bureau Community Documenters an annotated, updated and independent hub for public use that will measure the ~200 individual recommendations against existing contracts, policies, potential conflicts and public discourse; such as the Fraternal Order of Police contract, local legislation and media reports.

A couple of large scale initiatives involving remnants of big newsrooms brought together hold lessons for Chicago. And yes, they contribute to the “Could it happen here?” factor.
Poynter details how a non-profit now runs Philadelphia news and here’s an explainer. The Knight Foundation held a discusson last week and you can watch a video of the panel discussion if you want more details. In Detroit, here’s the story of the Detroit Journalism Cooperative and how the coop’s members — the Center for Michigan’s Bridge Magazine, Detroit Public Television, Michigan Radio, New Michigan Media, and WDET FM101.9 —all learned to play nicely together. Check out NextChapterDetroit.

Getting started

Thank you for hosting a conversation May 10 as part of the Independent Media Circle for the Chicago Community Trust’s On The Table 2016.

First

Sign up at On the Table 2016.
Your event description is the headline and a paragraph of what you want to discuss.
Invite your guests via email through the OTT 2016 interface.
In the form, select “Independent Media” as your partner (this puts you in queue for the special independent media survey questions.)
You’re done registering!
You can revise your event and add guests up until the day of your conversation.
Follow me on Twitter and join a Facebook group of your peers.

Second

I highly recommend reading some reporting from the New Jersey Local News lab about their experience. First get better acquainted with the concept of what a news ecosystem is. Then head over to Medium to read Molly de Aguiar (@MollydeAguiar) and Josh Stearns (@jcstearns) six part series Lessons from the Local News Lab.

Reading these pieces will take you about a half an hour and help you focus on your contribution to Chicago’s independent media ecosystem and your On The Table 2016 conversation.

Third

Look over the Host Kit. That will help you understand how to guide your conversation.
Sign up for an On The Table training session, if you like.
Share names of others you think might want to participate.
Read the online description of the On the Table 2016, independent media circle.

Beginning criteria

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What are the criteria to be considered independent media for On the Table 2016?

Adapted from Michele McLellan’s work with the BlockbyBlock News Network and with Michele’s List, these criteria provide a starting point and will evolve as this project does.

Content
The journalism maker is devoted primarily to original news although the outlet may provide commentary on content from other outlets. In addition, we are interested in Chicago focused-journalism reporting on a beat, a neighborhood or serving an audience in a media desert.

Practices
The content demonstrates a desire and an effort to practice accuracy, transparency and fair play.

Engagement
The site demonstrates a desire and an effort to promote civic engagement or an ethic of participation.

Frequency
The news is updated weekly – preferably three times per week – unless it is investigative, broadcast or beat. Investigative, broadcast and beat reporters and sites often distribute news and information less frequently, and through commercial partners.

Sustainability
Independent media who are non-commercial as well as commercial are developing a variety of revenue streams as they seek sustainability, including advertising, foundation funding, memberships, crowdfunding and events.

On The Table 2016: We are Chicago’s Independent Media

OTT16_imedia_blue

Are you an independent media outlet / journalism maker who reports on Chicago issues? If so, this message is for you.

The Chicago Community Trust is using its May 10 On the Table 2016 event to better get to know Chicago’s independent media outlets and start-ups. The intelligence gained from your OTT discussions will be a critical asset in June, when the Trust is planning a collaborative ecosystem design session for Chicago’s independent media.

Why?
A new crop of media activists are stepping up. Acts of journalism are proliferating. Fresh approaches to journalism are taking hold. The goal is to reach as many independent media voices as possible on May 10 and collect some information through a special survey that will inform a special strategic session in June.

What happens on May 10?
You invite some media friends to a meal, drinks or coffee to talk about what’s important to you. You and your guests — publishers, information gatherers, media friends and community members — are united in caring about the issues, policy, and action that activate Chicagoans, our neighborhoods and our leaders to make Chicago a better place.

The Trust will foot the bill with a $100 gift card (Supplies are limited to those who need it.) We’re looking for independent media outlets whose focus is civic, government and community life. Here’s our beginning criteria .

On May 11 ….
You’ll be emailed a survey to share what you discussed and that will include several questions tailored to independent media. The Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement (IPCE) at University of Illinois is helping us develop the survey.

When you record your conversation and take the survey, you’ll share how you work with your audience and colleagues as well as which services you’d find most valuable and least valuable for your operations and sustainability. In addition, the Chicago Community Trust wants to hear your ideas for sustaining independent media.

The outcome
The intelligence gained from your OTT discussions will be a critical asset in June, when the Trust is planning a collaborative ecosystem design session for Chicago’s independent media. Take good notes and share them in the survey!

How does it work?
— Go to On The Table and sign up to host.
— Fill out the simple online form.
— Choose “Independent Media” as your partner organization.
— You’ve joined the custom network for Independent Media OTT 2016!
— Complete registration by inviting your guests via the email interface.

NOTE: If you are hosting a conversation about your outlet, you can still choose “Independent Media” as your partner.

Ready to sign up? Read about next steps and check out some reading about media ecosystems.

QUESTIONS? Contact ChiNewsHive@Gmail.com. We’ll get back to you.

Police complaint transparency is eye of the storm in Chicago

by: Sally Duros | Dec 12, 2015

The way that police unions routinely bargain away public transparency is at the core of the legal battle in Chicago that has unleashed a stunning series of events.

Open government advocates consider “open by default” to be the gold standard for public records. But for Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police, ”closed by default” has been the standard upheld by collective bargaining agreements with the City of Chicago.

This standard is the case with the police union not only in Chicago, but in many cities nationwide, says Craig Futterman, who is a clinical law professor at the University of Chicago Law School Mandel Legal Aid where he directs the University of Chicago’s Civil Rights and Police Accountability Clinic.

Futterman has been working with independent journalist Jamie Kalven, founder of Chicago’s Invisible Institute, for more than a decade to open to the public the misconduct records of Chicago police officers through Freedom of Information Act requests and civil rights litigation.

Their vision is for an open data portal that will capture and make public the entire disciplinary database for the Chicago Police Department. The portal will be easily accessible for all to use, including journalists, researchers and community.

A common body of evidence

Fully stocked and fully iterative, the data portal will be a common body of evidence around which discourse, however contentious, however collaborative, can take place.

“The database we are talking about …. there has been nothing like this in Chicago or anywhere,” Futterman said. “It is unique in that it is dedicated to the principle that public means ‘public.’ This database is an attempt to make this more than an abstract principle and to make that principle real in Chicago.”

The portal already has a strong start with the Chicago Police Database Project (CPDP), a fully searchable community data portal announced in early November that contains the complaint records for more than 8,500 Chicago Police officers over the past four years.

A dark achievement

In a significant step toward transparency, the City of Chicago had agreed to turn over its full list of misconduct complaints for all officers, dating back to 1967, to the Invisible Institute, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times. But the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police has taken legal action to block its release, saying they would destroy hundreds of thousands of pages of evidence, files and records related to Chicago police misconduct reports older than four years.

Kalven petitioned the court and an Illinois Circuit Court Judge ruled in an emergency order that Chicago authorities must notify journalists, activists and the public before they destroy records. This is a heated time, when the U.S. Department of Justice is preparing its investigation of the Chicago Police Department, said to be the largest investigation ever of a police operation.

Futterman’s work with Kalven paid off big time in early 2014 when Kalven won as plaintiff in Kalven v. City of Chicago, a watershed court decision in Illinois that made police misconduct records public. That opened the floodgates to information on the Laquan McDonald shooting. Through a Freedom of Information Act request, Kalven obtained the autopsy that showed McDonald had been shot 16 times.

The Nov. 24 release of a Chicago Police Department dash-cam video shows Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting 16 times and killing 17-year old Laquan McDonald. The brutal image contradicts the official account given by the Fraternal Order of Police spokesman on Oct. 20, 2014. Also raising questions is the $5 million paid by the City of Chicago to McDonald’s family to settle out of court prior to a lawsuit.

In the streets, black youth, ministers and concerned citizens have been marching. In response, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has fired the Chicago Police Superintendent, the head of the Independent Police Review Authority and the Chief of Detectives. More heads could roll, some are saying, perhaps even the Mayor’s.

These extraordinary events add up to what Rachel Maddow called a “dark achievement” for Kalven’s journalism and police reform and open government in Chicago.

In this latest round with the police union, Kalven believes his effort will prevail and ultimately, after many legal volleys, the public records issue will be resolved permanently by the Illinois Legislature.

$500 million in police settlements

In addition to the human costs, the City of Chicago has paid out more than $500 million on police-related settlements, judgments, legal fees and other costs during the past decade, according to the Better Government Association, an independent watchdog group. The city shelled out $84.6 million in 2013 alone.

Meanwhile the existing data portal is there to carry water for Kalven and Futterman’s full transparency vision. Kalven is quick to say this is not a story about technology.

“The data is fragmentary in terms of the larger phenomena,” says Kalven, whose Invisible Institute first sprouted roots in an empty apartment at the old Stateway Gardens Housing Development. “That’s because there are things you can learn from the data. There are things you can only learn on the streets.”

“All the knowledge to reform the system is in the system, but it’s divided and scattered and divided from itself. (Events of the last few weeks) represent a huge breakthrough in (shattering) official secrecy. … Now, the key is to connect that knowledge with other kinds of knowledge on the street, in the department itself,” Kalven says.

System improvement as journalism

Kalven’s goal is to engender and fortify the feedback loops between the data and the people on the street and between the data and the police officers on the beat to create a systemic cycle of continuous improvement.

“I see that as fundamentally a journalistic project.”

When taken together, all the data completes the picture for public discourse on systemic police reform. Using the information in these documents and others as added, activists and journalists can map out the many interrelated components that form the entire “system” of police misconduct: everything from the attorneys who approach families to negotiate settlements; to how abusive police disrupt community trust; to how their abuse thwarts the work of conscientious and law-abiding police; to how the $500 million in settlements paid affects the system that is the City of Chicago and on.

An open newsroom ecosystem

All this will be rich fodder for a journalistic ecosystem Kalven hopes to see sprout around the police misconduct data. Already running as a pilot is a new newsroom called City Bureau directed by Darryl Holliday (who also works part-time for Invisible Institute). Publishing in partnership with the Chicago Reporter, the Chicago Reader and The Guardian, City Bureau has partners in the journalism, civic media and education spaces.

Kalven points out that that newsrooms themselves have an important place on the systems map and how open or closed they are as a component has a significant impact on working toward a systemic solution.

“There’s a strategy to secrecy. For instance, ‘If you knew what we (the Chicago Tribune) know, but we can’t tell you, but if you knew it, you would know we’re right’,” Kalven says. “We’ve had versions of that for years around these issues. Everybody picking their own facts, so to speak.”

“That’s no longer possible,” he says.

“What’s powerful about this is the publicness of it. … I see the journalism as an extension of that. As a possibility of really building an ever more robust ecosystem of journalists at different points in their career working individually, in collaboration on a whole constellation of issues bearing on these general themes and then having that work accumulate in a coherent way and be at the center of really critical public policy decisions that are going to be made in coming months and years about how the police operate in the city.”

“We made a very significant kind of down payment with the data we have on a public resource that’s open and available to everybody,” Kalven says. Now for others working on this issue, it’s “write your scoop, but then pass that material on to us. Don’t just put it in a file cabinet somewhere. Incorporate it into this expanding resource that’s of ever great use to everybody.”

The way forward for Chicago police reform

“This is an extraordinary moment in terms of possibilities for police reform, Kalven says. “If we have the black caucus and the ministers and various civic organizations, at least loosely, behind a clear, coherent reform agenda, that will be huge. There’s never been that kind of constituency for reform of this nature before.“

To Kalven’s view, four fundamental issues guide the police reform process forward.

They are —

Transparency
Accountability
Code of Silence
The Fraternal Order of Police Contract.

1) Transparency. It’s critical the information is made available to the public.

“That’s the phase we’re in and the drama we’re living through,” Kalven said. When Invisible Institute won the court decision in 2014 saying that police misconduct files are public information, he, his lawyers and Craig Futterman sat down and negotiated with Steve Patton, the corporation counsel and his team about how to operationalize the decision. “It was really successful and it was really a good negotiation,” Kalven said.

2) Accountability in terms of how citizen complaints are investigated and in the disciplinary process.
“Fundamentally, it doesn’t work,” Kalven said. “I think what our data show, overall, is they provide a kind of portrait of impunity.” Because the odds are against an abusive officer being identified, investigated and disciplined, there’s no real fear of punishment. And because of that residents of neighborhoods most affected by these patterns feel there’s no use in filing a complaint.

In addition, most large organizations that interface with the public conduct pattern analysis as part of quality control. Kalven cites airline practices that look at complaints as an important source of information for improving the bottom line. The City of Chicago ignores this large body of evidence.

3) The Code of Silence and the culture that enables it.
“This is where leadership really matters,” Kalven says. In the Laquan McDonald case, “I think it’s more disturbing how the culture of the department responds. This wasn’t some dramatic departure from the norm. This is the norm,” Kalven says. The way the institution responded was symptomatic of larger patterns. At every level, from officers on the scene as the boy was lying there bleeding to the highest levels of the city. “Over time, everybody’s instinct was to circle the wagons. To put out a false narrative and then double down on that false narrative when it was challenged. We now have more and more evidence and more will come out. That process of maintaining the false narrative required destruction of evidence, intimidation of witnesses, falsification of police records and, ultimately, the five million dollar settlement with the family, “ Kalven says.

4) Removing impediments in the union contract to vigorous, timely investigations.
This is likely to happen. Mayor Emanuel has referred to going back to the bargaining table with the police union, Kalven says. “The Fraternal Order of Police has succeeded in negotiating in their collective bargaining agreement so many layers of protection for police officers who are accused of crimes that it really is, ultimately, antithetical to the public interest,” Kalven says.” I joke sometimes, but it’s not really a joke that there’s no category of citizens including children and the mentally ill who have as much due process as police officers do.”

Dec. 3 : What is this Commons Transition anyway?

For Dec. 3 — If you’re stretched for time, you can read this abbreviated version by Michel Bauwens with a focus on the Main Points.

Are you a Steward of the Chicago Commons? Are you uncertain what that means? Do you want to learn more so you know whether you are?

Join us for a discussion of a Chicago Chamber of Commons and understand more about the Commons transition at Sulzer Library Dec. 3, 2015. We’ll be reading and discussing the Commons Transition: Policy Proposals for an Open Knowledge Society, a free downloadable e-book, featuring three newly updated Commons Transition plans by Michel Bauwens, John Restakis and George Dafermos. For a short introduction read notes from Bauwens talk at Cooperation 2015, my blog post on the Chicago Community Trust On the Table event and notes from the Oct. 10 event.

Dec. 3, 2015
7:00pm to 8:30pm
Sulzer regional Library
4455 N. Lincoln Avenue
Chicago IL 60625
(312) 744-7616
sulzerregional@chipublib.org

Millions of voices spotlight the problems facing our world while collegial visionaries join forces to create systemic solutions to these problems. Our intention is that the Chicago Chamber of Commons will honor and support these stewards doing this essential work in our home town.

A group of us who met recently to discuss the idea of the proposed Chamber have agreed that it would be helpful to bring people together to understand exactly what the Commons Transition is, how that dynamic is underway here in Chicago and where a proposed Chamber of Commons might fit within that dynamic.

A report from our October 10, 2015 gathering at the Institute for Cultural Affairs shows a draft timeline of steps toward formation of a Chamber. Among the initial and ongoing steps is a map of the many Chicago organizations who are doing important and essential work around the Commons. The Chamber of Commons asks the question — What do these stewards need so their work can continue unabated and uninterrupted? The follow-up question is — How can a proposed Chamber of Commons help to meet those needs?

We anticipate that reading and discussing the Commons Transition Plan will help us understand the strategic need for a Chicago Chamber of Commons within the landscape of Chicago’s stewards’ needs.

It’s a time of year when we know that everybody is busy with their own family, work and play so we’d be honored if you’d join us. Once again, here’s the link to the free e-book for your reading convenience.

Please register here so that we know who’s coming.

DIY websites for journalists

Here’s what my site looked like in 2002. My first site went live in 1997.

Luckily, setting up a website has gotten a lot easier than when I set up my first website. Back in 1997, I had to print a form downloaded from the Web, fill it out and mail it in with a check to retain my domain name. That domain name purchase was made from the agency that became Web giant Network Solutions, which today manages more than 7 million domain names.

By the early oughts, I was tapping into the sharing power of the Web by connecting with the Tech world, women’s networks, nonprofit community and others through a scrollbar on my site.

After purchasing my domain name, I then had to find a company that could “host” my domain on the Web- basically make it “live” on the Web. For a Web host, I selected a company called Pair Networks, which ultimately became too expensive for me. The first recorded image of SDuros.com in the Internet Archive was in August of the year 2000. By then I had learned rudimentary HTML, was a member of the International Webmaster’s Association and was reporting on venture capital and technology. I had ambitions to set up my own domain registrar for NPOs. Didn’t succeed or I’d be a millionaire now.

Now that I’ve told you all that, forget it.

DIY for journalists
Setting up a site so you can retain an archive of your articles is 1000% simpler today. Although there are many ways to set up a portfolio online with live links, I believe the best approach for a journalist is to set up an archive just like I have here in my WordPress site. I learned fairly quickly that I am not a Web designer and WP, SquareSpace and others take care of that shortage of talent.

Here’s what you need to know. Buy your domain name from a registrar. Also know that you are not actually “buying” your domain name. You are “renting” it for a period of time. Mosts registrars give you a discount when you rent for a number of years so that is what I’d recommend if you can afford it. Here’s the list of the largest domain name registrars from WebHosting.info.

The largest on this list are GoDaddy, Enom, Network Solutions, Tucows and Schlund+Partner. This list says nothing about price or reliability. I have had personal experience with GoDaddy, Network Solutions and Tucows.

These days, the larger domain registrars are also hosts. And many of them offer an easy user interface with WordPress, which is basically what your “design” on the Web will look like – no hand woven bad html design for lucky you! You can have an interface that looks like this site you’re reading on, which I’ve set up on WordPress.org, the commercial imprint of Word Press. Here’s a sampling of what the bare bones designs look like.

The basic designs are free but many folks choose to jazz them up by hiring a great designer to assist. My feeling is that site design for us sole proprietor/journalists is less important because the quality of information is what is important. And with the way information is read and distributed on the Web, I think less and less about my site as a destination. In fact, many journalists are experimenting with site-less news models these days.

One-stop shops aplenty
It’s easy to find a one-stop shop that provides domain registration, Web Hosting and WordPress interface. But buyer beware. A company like GoDaddy seemingly makes it simple to buy your domain name and put it on the Web. But I ask at what cost. Me, I dislike GoDaddy. Their early marketing was offensive (it was like Hooters) and they nickel and dime you for every little service you need. As your use and sophistication grows you might find yourself disgusted pretty quickly .

A couple of years ago I moved to MediaTemple. The $250 per year fee plus the cost of my domain name rental seemed like a good deal for me since I “play” on the Web a lot with various domain names and often establish and run sites and social media for clients. I’ve been pretty happy with them and their services. But now that Media Temple has been purchased by GoDaddy, I am preparing to flee if the extra fees get onerous. One option I have been considering is Bluehost, which is often played off against GoDaddy in articles like this from a site called WebHostranking.com (which by the way offers lots of useful info for those of you getting started.)

The important thing for a journalist to get from one of these services is 1-click set up for WordPress, which MediaTemple, BlueHost and GoDaddy all have.

Added kudos for Bluehost
When I asked my friend, colleague and digital expert Courtney Hunt who she would recommend for Domain registration and hosting, she said she is leaning toward BlueHost. “I typically recommend Bluehost (one of 3 recommended specifically by WordPress). I have clients who use GoDaddy (trying hard, but not the best option) and InMotion (seems to be good) as well,” she said.

I hope this is helpful. Courtney and I are discussing doing a joint session for journalists moving to the Web. Let me know what you’d like to learn about at SallyDuros AT gmail.com and we’ll see what we can do for you.