Knowledge Sharing

The following questions and answers will explain how the closing of the Fannie Mae Foundation will affect the Foundation’s knowledge-sharing products, KnowledgePlex® and DataPlace^TM. Please read through this information carefully.

Users

Q: What will happen to KnowledgePlex and DataPlace?

A: The Fannie Mae Foundation has supported the creation of KnowledgePlex, Inc. an independent nonprofit organization that will continue to operate KnowledgePlex and DataPlace as valuable information resources for the affordable housing sector. KnowledgePlex and DataPlace will continue to provide the affordable housing field with its key services, such as Week in Review, key community data, and online chats free of charge. This new organization also will pursue other opportunities to apply this technology to other sectors in an effort to democratize information and data for low-income communities.

Q: Will Fannie Mae fund KnowledgePlex and DataPlace after the Foundation closes?

A: The Fannie Mae Foundation currently intends to contribute to KnowledgePlex, Inc. the assets and intellectual property used in the KnowledgePlex and DataPlace programs. In addition, KnowledgePlex, Inc. anticipates receiving significant start-up support that will enable it to maintain KnowledgePlex and DataPlace as these activities move into a standalone entity. During 2007, KnowledgePlex, Inc. will be seeking support from other funders and organizations interested in supporting this innovative technology for 2008 and beyond.

Q: Does this mean I will now have to pay for my subscription to KnowledgePlex once the Foundation funding has stopped?

A: No. The business plan for KnowledgePlex, Inc. will ensure that organizations working to transform communities and neighborhoods have free access to the information and data they need. However, there may be premium services beyond what's available that may require a subscription fee. KnowledgePlex, Inc. will be sharing information and its plans with its subscribers in the coming months.

Q: Will KnowledgePlex's Week in Review and DataPlace's data continue to be updated?

A: Yes. The start-up support for KnowledgePlex, Inc. will cover the costs associated with maintaining and updating all customarily produced content on KnowledgePlex and DataPlace. Beyond 2007, KnowledgePlex is working on how to continue providing that information free of charge.

Q: Is KnowledgePlex, Inc. looking for external funders and other partners?

A: Yes. KnowledgePlex, Inc. is looking for external funders and other partners that it can work with to bring KnowledgePlex and DataPlace-like solutions to the funders' and partners' communities and grantees.

Vendors/contractors:

Q: What will happen to KnowledgePlex and DataPlace?

A: KnowledgePlex and DataPlace will continue to exist, but under the auspices of KnowledgePlex, Inc., a newly established standalone nonprofit organization.

Q: What will happen to my contract after the Foundation spins off KnowledgePlex?

A: Existing commitments and agreements will be assigned to KnowledgePlex, Inc., which will contract with vendors that provide services necessary to operate and maintain KnowledgePlex and DataPlace. KnowledgePlex, Inc.'s goal is to provide uninterrupted service to its users and partners.

Partners and Affiliates:

Q: Will my existing cobrand remain free?

A: Yes. Existing cobrands will not be charged a fee for maintenance services in 2007. While it's possible that the situation may change in 2008, the KnowledgePlex, Inc. team will work with you as it develops its future plans.

Q: Who should I work with from this point on?

A: Continue to work with your current KnowledgePlex contact until you are notified otherwise. If you are having problems reaching your contact, the info@knowledgeplex.org e-mail address will be able to redirect you to someone who can help you.

Q: Will my existing extranet, RSS feed, syndication, ticker, or other Web service I currently get from KnowledgePlex or DataPlace continue to exist and be free?

A: Yes. All existing free services will remain free into the foreseeable future.

Q: Patrick Simmons and/or Troy Anderson have been scheduled to speak or present to our audience and have already been listed in our programmatic materials. Will they still commit to speaking/presenting at our event?

A: Yes. As KnowledgePlex, Inc. becomes its own entity, KnowledgePlex and DataPlace staff, or their comparable representatives, will continue to honor their commitments to speaking at your event. For more details, contact your speaker/presenter directly.

Information on KnowledgePlex and DataPlace

Getting Started on KnowledgePlex

You can make KnowledgePlex your "one stop" to find information related to affordable housing and community development.

If you’ve only occasionally visited KnowledgePlex, or have never fully used the site, there are simple ways to dive in and become a regular user.

One good way to start is by subscribing to the Week in Review newsletter. You’ll need to register on the site -- it’s easy and takes just a minute. Go to www.knowledgeplex.org and click on the Register link in the top right corner. Be sure to click "Yes" to the newsletter opt-in at the bottom of the page. The newsletter puts the week's top housing and community development stories, plus industry announcements, at your fingertips. And, as a registered member of KnowledgePlex, you can submit events to the calendar.

You also can participate in expert chats. Led by industry experts, these topical discussions give KnowledgePlex users the opportunity to ask questions and share their views.

Created by a distinguished team of founding partners and implemented by the Fannie Mae Foundation, KnowledgePlex (www.knowledgeplex.org) is a comprehensive and interactive Web portal, providing information resources for practitioners, policy-makers, scholars, investors, and others interested in affordable housing and community development. Part newscast, part library, part symposium, KnowledgePlex is a virtual meeting place for anyone interested in housing and community issues. KnowledgePlex's menu of features includes daily news, expert discussions, reports, research, and a sector-wide calendar.

KnowledgePlex applies the most advanced Web technologies and services in partnership with excellent content and service providers. This model ensures a productive push and pull between content developers and content users, making KnowledgePlex one of the premier, external knowledge- sharing sites available.

The network of KnowledgePlex users continues to show aggressive growth, with hundreds of new users added every month. Today, more than 20,000 registered KnowledgePlex users from around the world exchange information and discuss industry-related issues 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The KnowledgePlex Web site and its features are free to all registered users.
KnowledgePlex features include:

Research and practitioner studies, reports, and publications
Housing and community development news from thousands of publications
Content recommendations pointing users to additional resources
A weekly e-newsletter providing a roundup of industry news and events from around the country
Extranet capabilities that enable users to connect with peers through private networks
A calendar tracking events of interest to professionals in the field
Frequent online events and discussion forums bringing experts together around important topics
National and local housing and demographic data via DataPlace

For more information on KnowledgePlex, visit www.knowledgeplex.org.

DataPlace (http://www.fanniemaefoundation.org/redir.html?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.DataPlace.org), a KnowledgePlex initiative sponsored by the Fannie Mae Foundation, is designed to offer a one-stop source for housing and demographic data on any location throughout the United States. DataPlace not only assembles a variety of data sets from multiple sources, but also provides tools and guides to assist users in analyzing, interpreting, and applying the data so they can make more informed decisions.

Available free of charge to professionals, organizations, and policy-makers concerned with affordable housing issues, DataPlace offers:

Data. DataPlace provides easy access to data at geographic scales ranging from the neighborhood to the nation. The site currently contains more than a dozen data sets including the 1990 and 2000 censuses (demographic, economic, housing, and social characteristics); Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data set (home mortgage applications and loans); Section 8 Expiring Use database (neighborhood- and property-level data on federally assisted housing at risk of loss); and Consolidated Plan special tabulations (data on housing affordability by household income level).

Area Overview. Searching by location from the home page produces an Area Overview. This is a quick statistical snapshot that displays several groupings of key indicators about the selected place, auto-generated text providing more information about it, and visual clues indicating how this location differs from others like it. From here, users can map, chart, or rank the area selected. From any page, clicking on the Area Overview tab at the top of the page returns users to the currently selected location.

Maps. A powerful yet simple-to-use mapping tool enables users to produce colorful thematic maps incorporating any of a wide range of key indicators. With just a few clicks of the mouse, users can customize their maps to express different indicators, color schemes, or interval ranges, and save the results to a PDF file.

Data and Charts. Clicking on the Data and Charts tab takes users to a simple tool for preparing bar charts that can be manipulated to display time series or comparisons across locations.

Rankings. The Rankings function allows users to compare any given location against others, in terms of any of the thousands of indicators in DataPlace, delivering quick answers to key questions.

And More! DataPlace's how-to guides provide in-depth descriptions of selected data sets, showing nonexperts how to analyze and apply DataPlace to real-world issues. Data News provides the latest information on newly released data sets, as well as highlights from relevant reports and research. The DataPlace Web Data Links provide short descriptions of and links to more than 100 sources of housing, demographic, and economic data.