A Collaboratively Created Open Textbook

This open textbook was built through a collaborative, grassroots effort of many educators in j-entrepreneurship, with project support from the Rebus Community for Open Textbook Creation.^[1] There are numerous contributors to this, version 1.0, whom we would like to acknowledge and to thank.

Dr. Michelle Ferrier, president of Journalism That Matters and an associate professor in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University;  and Elizabeth Mays, operations and marketing manager for Rebus Foundation and adjunct faculty at Arizona State University, instigated and served as editors on the project.

The first edition features chapters by:

• Jake Batsell, associate professor at Southern Methodist University’s Division of Journalism in Dallas and author of Engaged Journalism
• CJ Cornell, author of The Age of Metapreneurship—A Journey into the Future of Entrepreneurship
• Geoffrey Graybeal, assistant professor at Texas Tech University
• Mike Green, a New York Times Leadership Academy Fellow and co-founder of ScaleUp Partners
• Mark Poepsel, assistant professor, Southern Illinois University
• Jessica Pucci,  professor of practice, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU
• Cindy Royal, director of the Media Innovation Lab at Texas State University’s School of  Journalism and Mass Communication
• Ingrid Sturgis, associate professor, Howard University
• Betty Tsakarestou, assistant professor and head of advertising and public relations lab at Panteion University
• and a foreword by Jan Schaffer, executive director of J-Lab.org

In addition, multiple professionals contributed perspectives “from the field”:

• Abel Asrat, founder of Addis Insight
• Rediat Belehu, CEO of Addis Insight
• Lori Benjamin, freelance content marketer
• Dana Coester, associate professor at West Virginia University Reed College of Media
• Chris Dell, founder of Go Baller Media
• Dalton Dellsperger, founder of TownWave
• John Dille, president of Federated Media
• Amy Eisman, director of media entrepreneurship, American University
• Melanie Faizer, senior lecturer, University of Tennessee
• Francine Hardaway, founder of Stealthmode Partners
• Gretchen Macchiarella, assistant professor of Journalism at California State University, Northridge
• Hodan Osman, fellow at the Centre of Public Leadership at Harvard University.
• Mark J. Scarp, faculty associate at Arizona State University
• Coury Turczyn, former editor of the Knoxville Mercury
• Georgann Yara, freelance journalist

Others, including Ebony Reed, and Daniel Zayas, provided interviews for the book. And Cheryl Cuillier, OER coordinator at the University of Arizona, helped to flesh out the (still-growing!) spreadsheet of foundations and contest funding for j-startups.

We would be remiss if we neglected to mention all those who volunteered to copy-edit chapters of the book, including Leanne Page, Mary Brunskill, and Jay Hartwell. (Peer reviewers will also be credited as a group here once we know all those who participated.) Finally, a thanks to the students and faculty who are beta testing the book in Fall 2017 and will help us improve it for the official release in January 2018.

Apurva Ashok, with help from Zoe Wake Hyde, formatted and designed the book using Pressbooks as well as product development for the software itself that will ultimately enhance the book’s UX.

We would like to express our sincerest gratitude to all who contributed to this project to date.

This book is in public beta as of Fall 2017. The official release (ETA January 2018) will incorporate feedback received in beta testing. A future release will also include activities, ancillary materials, and faculty resources on media innovation for instructors. If you would like to help expand this book for the second edition and have a (CC BY) resource or additional chapter you would like to contribute, please volunteer by commenting here.^[2]