Editor’s note: This is the first blog post where we are specifically highlighting an innovative project from another funding organization; let us know what you think in the comments. This post is from Gary Kebbel, Director of the Knight Journalism program.

More and more individuals and non-profit organizations are experimenting with new ways to bring important information to the public, using new digital tools or processes. One example is an experiment in getting the public to micro-fund investigative journalism, called Spot.us. Another new investigative reporting site, Pro Publica is relying on a large charitable contribution to fund top-notch professional investigative journalists to write stories that many daily newspapers no longer can afford to do. And now, the Kaiser Family Foundation has created Kaiser Health News, a new, nonprofit health policy news organization that will provide free health policy news content to for-profit and non-profit news organizations.

Kaiser Health News joins Spot.us and Pro Publica as experiments in how to fund serious journalism. Kaiser Health News is an experiment in niche journalism funded by an interested party, a foundation whose mission is to focus research and grants on the major health care issues facing the U.S. According to the foundation’s web site, KHN will be an “independent news service, to report on the nation’s complex health care system and the increasingly urgent political and policy debates surrounding it.” To achieve that goal, journalists Laurie McGinley, formerly of the Wall Street Journal, and Peggy Girshman, now at Congressional Quarterly and formerly of NPR, have joined KHN.

What do you think about the Kaiser Health News experiment in niche journalism?

Don’t forget to get your application into the Knight News Challenge site by November 1st at midnight, Pacific Time if you’re planning to be part of this year’s contest. (Of course, if you’re like Lisa Williams, a 2007 winner, you can apply at the last minute–who knows, you might win!)

For more info on the contest, check newschallenge.org; if you have a good idea that fits our focus–APPLY.

Miro Local TV is a new project from the Participatory Culture Foundation, creators of the popular Internet TV application Miro, to help people find and discuss local online video. The project is funded by a $589,000 grant from Knight.

PCF Founder Holmes Wilson talks about the project:

From the press release:

“Budgets or local TV and print journalism are declining, threatening the vitality of cities and towns,” said Nicholas Reville, the foundation’s executive director. “But the explosion of viewer-created web video gives us a powerful new way to do local journalism.”

Each site will bring together relevant video from local videobloggers and sites like YouTube, using a combination of automation and expertise from staff at partnering private or public access stations. Curators at the partner station will develop a set of keywords that identify neighborhoods, local landmarks or venues.

Do you want this new local video hub in your town? Tell us in the comments.

Congratulations to the MIT Center for Future Civic Media team, a 2007 Knight News Challenge winner (remember, only two days left to apply for this year’s contest), on their relaunched Web site.

From the site’s about page:

The Center for Future Civic Media is working to create technical and social systems for sharing, prioritizing, organizing, and acting on information. These include developing new technologies that support and foster civic media and political action; serving as an international resource for the study and analysis of civic media; and coordinating community-based test beds both in the United States and internationally.

Sorted by topic in the site’s left sidebar, the featured tools from the Center include:

extrACT, an action map of Colorado that “may amplify the effectiveness with which landowners and industry workers can collectively influence gas development policies through negotiation, regulation, legislation, or litigation.”

Comm.unity, “a new platform implementing a wireless, device-to-device information system that bypasses the need for centralized servers, coordination, or administration.”

Selectricity, “Web-based voting machinery for the masses takes some of the best and most exciting election technology developed for government elections and deploys it in service of everything else. A tool for communities to make better decisions in better ways.”

You can also find blog entries and watch the 2007 video or podcast of speakers Chris Csikszentmihályi, Henry Jenkins, Beth Noveck, and Ethan Zuckerman on how to define civic media; the Center describes their efforts as “developing the emerging ‘Fifth Estate’ of participatory news, media, and civic change.”

Thoughts on the new Drupal site? Use the Center’s contact page or the comments below.

Director of the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism at the University of Maryland Carol Horner died last week in the District of Columbia.

The Washington Post quotes Knight Foundation Journalism Vice President Eric Newton:

“Under Carol Horner’s leadership, the Knight Center in Specialized Journalism became the gold standard for training journalists to cover complex topics,” said Eric Newton, vice president of the journalism program at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. “Because of Carol’s work, journalists all over America know how to cover difficult-to-handle topics — everything from nuclear power to the military to the economy.”

View a photo slideshow and find out how to share your memories here.

Editor’s note: Susan Mernit is directing the Knight News Challenge this year; her thoughts below on Tuesday night’s San Francisco gathering.

We had over 70 people at TechSoup for the last (we think) Knight News Challenge meet up of this funding cycle.

Being in my home base of San Francisco/Bay area was great and the turn-out was impressive–not only because of the size of the crowd but the keen interest in applying most had and the range of skills and interests they represented.

At least two people in the crowd were interested in applying internationally, with groups they work with in other countries; many others had ideas for ways to deliver news within communities, to visualize important data, or to chart and discuss “green” news and issues. Everyone was reminded (just like I am doing for you right now) that November 1st is the deadline and that to apply you need to go to newschallenge.org, register, and fill out the forms.

(Note: Thanks to All About George and rich the editor for the images above.)

Thanks to Rosental Alves, Director of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and Adam Weinroth of Pluck for two Austin News Challenge meetups last Thursday.

News Challenge is the $5M yearly contest to find innovative ideas about delivering information to specific geographic communities, and the application deadline is November 1st. You can apply online here.

If you’re in the Bay Area, join us at the San Francisco News Challenge meetup tomorrow night, Tuesday the 21st at 7pm at Tech Soup (details and RSVP here).

This weekend at Maker Faire in Austin, Texas, we talked with inventors, hackers, and visionaries:

Questions? Should we visit your area next year? Let us know in the comments, and thanks again to everyone we met in Austin–

The five founding medical and educational institutions (Akron Children’s Hospital, Akron General Health System, Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy (NEOUCOM), Summa Health System, and The University of Akron) announced the BioInnovation Institute in Akron earlier this week along with a $20 million grant from Knight Foundation.

Knight CFO Juan Martinez helped put together the plan for the BioInnovation Institute:

Dr. W. Gerald Austen, chairman of Knight Foundation, said he hopes the Institute “will make Akron a world-class center for bioinnovation.”

Per William H. Considine, chairman of the BioInnovation Institute and president and chief executive officer of Akron Children’s Hospital, goals of the Institute include:

* Creating a nationally distinctive center of excellence at the intersection of biomaterials and medicine
* Translating leading edge research into life-saving medical devices
* Improving the health of the community
* Rapidly growing annual biomaterials-related research funding across the partners
* Increasing investment by national firms into regional biomedical start-ups and companies
* Increasing employment opportunities for those educated locally and drawing talent from around the globe
* Adding thousands of new jobs in the region by 2018.

For more, please see the press release and the BioInnovation Web site.

What do you think about the new BioInnovation Institute in Akron?

As of now, there are nineteen days left to apply for the Knight News Challenge, the yearly $5MM contest to find innovative ideas about delivering information to specific geographic communities.

To find out more about how to apply and win funding for your idea, join me, Kristen Taylor, this Thursday at one of two meetups in Austin:

This Thursday, 3:30pm at the University of Texas at Austin (Burson Conference Room at the College of Communication building–Room 4.128 in the CMA Building) Map

This Thursday, 7-8pm at Pluck (200 Academy Drive, plenty of parking) Map

Here’s the Facebook invite and the Upcoming invite.

I’ll also be at the Austin Maker Faire on Saturday and Sunday (details).

Any questions, please let us know in the comments below. And if you would like to work through your idea before you apply, please go to the News Challenge Garage and request a mentor (remember that you still need to apply through the main News Challenge site here).

Thanks to the News Challenge winner Lisa Williams of Placeblogger and the Berkman Blog Group for a great Boston meetup last night where we talked about the history of the News Challenge (the $5MM yearly contest to find innovative digital delivery ideas), the Garage site for working through ideas before applying, how mentoring in the Garage works, and brainstorming ideas for this year’s contest.

You’ll see Steve Garfield and Jason Pramas (Open Media Boston) in the group below as well as developers and thinkers from MIT, Harvard, and Somerville organizations.

Next Thursday, we’ll host meetups in Austin and we’ll also be at the Maker Faire during the weekend. After that, we’ll talk in San Francisco (Facebook invite). We hope to meet you then–

Remember that the News Challenge contest closes November 1st; you can apply here and work through your idea before applying here with a mentor who has won the contest in the past.