Great point! I’ll contend that just like the Hebrews made it to promised land and Moses didn’t, Hearken is an innovator/leader/tool for our cause that won’t solve all of our problems or necessarily make it past a few rounds of funding but it will have left a lasting impact on the industry.

For a few months now I’ve been thinking about how polling is ineffective, disenfranchising, and not representative and what I can do to make something better. It’s an industry and practice worth thinking about when social journalists envision new tools. Can journalists perform campaigns with their communities more intricate and extensive than the census every five years to see what the community needs and how well journalists are doing? Think texting campaigns, on-the-street interviews, community outreach, etc.