There's a new fund in town and they have a challenge for you. 

The Jewish New Media Fund is a recently launched collaboration between the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation and the  Righteous Persons Foundation. In their first year the fund is offering a total of $500,000 to support projects that, through digital media, encourage the next generation of Jews to be engaged in the Jewish community.

So, what do you need to apply?

1. Be techie. Your project must include digital media such as video, social networking, digital communications, and more.
2. Be innovative. Propose something that has never been seen before!
3. Be empowering. Does your project inspire others to become active in Judaism and the Jewish community? 
4. Be engaging. How can your project foster interaction and a meaningful Jewish life in the 21st century?

The deadline for applications is November 22, 2010.

Think you've got the next big thing for the Jewish community? Visit the Jewish New Media Innovation Fund website to learn how to apply.

PT10: The Digital Issue is live on Google Wave! Read the articles, insert your own comments, and join the conversation.

Can't see the wave below? Click here to go directly to Google Wave.

INSERT WAVE HERE

PT10: The Digital Issue is about to launch next week -- making it the first-ever magazine issue produced and released on Google Wave! Get ready to be a part of digital history by Waving into the conversation (and if you don't have Wave, let us know in the comments so we can get you an invite to participate!).

Over the past four years, PresenTense has been growing by leaps and bounds, from an all-volunteer magazine to a international organization with three fellowship programs, ten (almost eleven!) published magazines, a Jerusalem hub, dozens of events across the US, Canada, and Israel, hundreds of volunteers, and thousands of community members.

Over time, we've added new services as needed, often picking the easiest and cheapest (i.e. free) program. But now, between Gmail, Google Docs, Wufoo, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Blip, Livestream, a Salesforce account with Vertical Response, and six different websites so far (check out our very first one), we've racked up quite an array of information.

Right now, we're working to upgrade our own operating system and better organize and position PT for its next period of growth. Thanks to the Salesforce Foundation, we have a free Enterprise account that we've been using somewhat minimally for a couple of years. We're just now getting around to maximizing its powerful capabilities and setting it up to work for us. I've been working with NPTech, a new Israeli company that helps nonprofits integrate technological solutions in their organizations, to untangle processes and figure out just how we want to track all the data we need to collect - which is a lot harder than I thought it would be. On the user end, you rarely think about the amount of time and energy that goes into setting up an easy to use, intuitive way of collecting information that can then be accessible right at your fingertips, whenever you need it.

As onerous as the task sounds, I've surprisingly enjoyed delving into the history and structure of PT. It's an opportunity to review PT as a whole, past, present, and future - to examine where we've been, account for where we're at, and envision where we're going. The foundation needs to be solid enough to organize all our current information, and also accommodate future expansion - even when we're not entirely sure what that will include several years down the road.

Right now I'm in the design phase, which we expect to take another few weeks. Once we get the design right, then we'll set it all up and fix any bugs, and open it up to staff. I plan to include more updates on how Salesforce is going - so stay tuned!

Hi PT writers and editors,

Just waiting for the perfect opportunity to exercise those creative
energies? We have some cool ideas and topics that are just waiting for
you!

Writing and editing already? Forward this to a friend!

Topics:
**Online social activism and fundraising
**Inter-generational issues in the digital age
**Inter-faith dialogue using social media and video
**Web 2.0 projects in the Jewish world
**Everything I Ever Learned About Online Community, I Learned in Synagogue
**Privacy issues in the digital age
**Digital age changes in job descriptions
**A funder's perspective on new technologies

Categories:
-Interview -- A Person to Plan On
-Bits from the Blogs -- Report on the blog buzz
-Around the World -- Report on young Jewish life in a country anywhere
in the world
-Food column -- Jewish food blogs, or any intersection between food
and the digital age
-Reviews -- Book, Film, Music, Theater, and the larger societal themes
they bring out
-Portrait of an Artist -- Profile someone whose art speaks to the digital age
-Fiction, poetry
-Photo Essay -- and other photos representing the digital age

-Any of the ideas listed in the Community Idea Pool:
http://www.presentense.org/magazine/digital-issue/idea-pool -- or you can post any of your own ideas on Jewish identity in the digital age at www.presentense.org/magazine/digital-issue/pitch

More previews to follow, but don't just wait for the issue; be a part of it instead!  Write for PresenTense 10: the digital age issue.