We've re-imagined a community newspaper for the digital age: a mobile and web app that cultivates ideas and grows capital. Inspired by the self-publishing spirit of print's early days the newspaper shows a rich summary of the thoughts and activities of our community's change agents. The app transfers the value of social media into the physical world via it's tight integration with the arts-driven incubator, bookstore and cafe: R&D.

Please describe your innovation?

The R&D Broadsheet is a mobile and web app that publishes user-generated content from Honolulu's freelancers, non-profits, start-up entrepreneurs, and creative workers who visit R&D. Content might include an update on a non-profit and a call for volunteers or a discussion on what tools are and are not working for businesses (i.e. is crowdfunding still effective?). Anyone can view the content to find out who is at R&D and what they're working on, but only those present in the space can contribute. A points system will be integrated into the app to incentivize participation with free coffee drinks and merchandise. The Broadsheet fuses web 2.0 communications technology with the remarkable tradition of subversive, experimental, and self-published newspapers from the industrial revolution, colonial America, and post-missionary Hawaii. As a facilitator of cross-disciplinary connections, the R&D Broadsheet will transform a community of creatives and entrepreneurs into agents of change.

What is the problem or situation that your innovation seeks to address?

The Broadsheet is inspired by the coffee houses and independent presses that were responsible for much of the innovation in the industrial revolution. At the time coffee houses were forums for social and economic development. Inside, random interactions and passionate ideas fueled rapid innovation. This was amplified by newspapers circulated to coffee house patrons, creating a critical mass of informed, engaged change agents. Those working to create a better future for Hawaii realize they need to re-engineer the system. No single individual knows what that new system looks like, but it will almost certainly be entrepreneurial. This community needs a medium that supports each step up the steep learning curve of entrepreneurial literacy. It needs a way to run ideas through a critical filter to get feedback on new ways of creating value specific to our unique environment. Finally, it needs a free or inexpensive, yet credible means to market what it produces, stimulating growth.

What effort have you made to test out your new idea?

R&D has published a weekly newsletter since February 2012 (see supplemental materials) to 300+ recipients and maintains active social media accounts via Twitter and Facebook which reach hundreds more. These outlets often serve as platforms for discussion, but are limited by design in their capacity to allow much in-depth dialogue or transference between on-line and in-person connections and sharing. Our physical space, open since October 2011, has helped incubate several business and supports social ventures such as The Whole Ox Deli, Volta electric car charging stations, and Hawaii Community Stewardship Network. These are examples of the incredibly diverse ventures that work out of R&D who benefit from the unplanned relationships and networks developed with each other, and with other diverse users of R&D simply because of their regular physical presence at R&D. As a forum for sharing work and growing connections, the R&D Broadsheet will augment the success of such ventures.

What is particularly noteworthy or novel about your innovation?

This generation has an undeniable appetite for digital media, but also longs for "simpler" times of face-to-face interactions and conversation. The combination of the digital Broadsheet and R&D's physical space offers a single experience that satisfies both needs. It recognizes that the problems posed by new economic realities must be solved, in part, on the internet, but they must also be addressed with the rich dialogue that can only occur in person. The Broadsheet is also noteworthy in its focus on design. We provide a rigorously designed user-experience that specifically stimulates creativity and inspires innovative thought. People love the design of R&D's space because it is comfortable, has a library of resources to browse or purchase and has the highest quality hand-crafted coffee. Similarly, the Broadsheet will be a design-driven innovation product: clean, inviting, intuitive to use, yet visually exciting.

What impact do you expect your innovation will have on the problem or situation described in the previous question?

We expect the Broadsheet to spread entrepreneurial literacy allowing people to start their own ventures with more success. We expect it to strengthen ideas that will benefit the entire community through a critical feedback loop. We expect it to produce a rich public domain of new economy best-practices for companies of all sizes to build into their own operations. We expect it to augment word-of-mouth marketing for freelancing professionals and craftsmen that are actively creating products or new sources of value. We expect the Broadsheet program to centralize (to the extent possible and desirable) the creative community – a community that is traditionally fragmented and without a common organizing body such as a professional or trade organization (e.g. as the American Bar Association does for lawyers).

What other community partners will you need if your innovation is to scale beyond your organization?

To make this project scale, we will need to secure the participation of the many local organizations doing progressive work and grappling with the questions of how to move our community forward. These include: AIGA, Hi-Capacity, Tech Hui, Hawaii Open Data, The Hawaii Fashion Incubator, and our Kaka'ako neighbors such as 808 Urban, The GreenHouse, Chai Studio, Hank's Haute Dogs, The Whole Ox Deli, Pow-wow, and the Box Jelly. The model can also be made to scale on a national level by partnering with organizations similar to Interisland Terminal in other cities. Some Examples: General Assembly, Skill Share, Grind, 3rd Ward and other co-working/co-creating spaces

Why are your organization, partners, and key personnel suited to take on this project?

R&D is a project of Interisland Terminal, a 3-year old, Hawai‘i-based 501(c)3 non-profit. Our team of founders and core volunteers are veterans of the arts and have a proven track record of working together and collaborating with other organizations. Wei Fang, Sarah Honda, Michelle Carino, Henry Mochida, Angelica Rabang, Sean Shodahl, and Ben Trevino collectively bring decades of experience in technology, community building, exhibition, program development, and collaboration. Michelle and Angelica are talented graphic designers with many web-projects in their portfolios and Ben has 8 years of experience as a web-developer and project manager for technology projects. We have relationships with many high quality mobile application developers that frequent R&D, including Kyle and Cara Oba the likely contractors for this project. For more about Kyle and Cara visit http://pasdechocolat.com/