Watch as The Charlotte Observer reports on a Knight-sponsored "Random Act of Culture."

Strolling through a farmers market at lunchtime in Charlotte is always a treat. Sniffing the just-picked peaches, choosing a perfect ruby red tomato - those are usually the highlights.

My visit to Atherton Market was made even better Tuesday when opera filled the air. Yes, I knew a musical surprise was planned as part of Knight Foundation's new Random Acts of Culture series, so I waited with some anticipation. But my friend did not know what was about to happen.

First startled, she quickly became totally enthralled as singers from Opera Carolina serenaded each other and their unlikely audience. Shoppers pulled out camera phones and joined the throng of professional photographers on hand. Wide-eyed children and suit-clad dads alike applauded enthusiastically as yet another singer joined in.

Knight's grant to the Arts and Science Council to organize these Random Acts of Culture accomplished its goal, I'd say. I didn't poll the crowd, but I'm guessing many have never been to an Opera Carolina performance at the performing arts center downtown. But, now they've experienced the beauty and passion of Puccini, and hopefully they'll want to hear more.

We never know what will rise to the top each year in the Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism. But we do know that it will define a significant trend in the rapidly evolving media landscape.

This year, without a doubt, the innovations clustered around the process of journalism – not just the finished product.

The processes honored are kicking into high gear how collaborations – with readers, news providers, data gatherers and ordinary citizens – are fostering unique levels of digital engagement.  They are producing different forms of news, growing it, sharing it, amplifying it, making it engaging ¬and often having demonstrable impact.

Ushahidi Haiti became the go-to place for those delivering disaster-relief services. ProPublica’s growing corps of citizen reporters is helping the investigative news site report news from the ground up. 48 HR Magazine shows us how to do a stunning deep-dive on a crowdsourced topic with rapid-fire turnaround.

To be sure, the winners are showing us that it’s important to go beyond the shock and awe that crowdsourcing actually can work and begin to refine the recipe for putting it on the menu of daily journalism.

The robustness of all the top ideas told us that formulaic journalism on auto-pilot is dead. (Read more in our news release.)

Very much alive are things like Sunlight Live, the $10,000 Grand Prize winner. How do you cover a highly orchestrated, bipartisan news event like February’s health summit? It involves more than a reporter taking notes on the proceedings.

Take one orchestrated political event, stream the video, find a way to blog it live. Then sprinkle in via widget deep data from OpenSecrets to tie the speakers to the campaign contributions they received. “Let the numbers do a little more of the talking than just the politicians,” said Jake Brewer in Sunlight’s blog unpacking the project’s execution.

Add a widget for Twitter talk about the event.  And pepper it with visualizations, such as word clouds and tweet graphs to boost understanding.

The result: nearly 43,000 watched the debate on Sunlight Live, 9,800 participated in the liveblog, more than 1,300 tweets were sent out.

The Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism have been around since 2003. The awards were among the first to recognize global blogging, interactive games and exercises, creative data and mapping mash ups, nonprofit news, and the role creative technologists are playing in journalism.

We don’t know what will come to the fore next year, but we know, that like this year, it will make us more optimistic, rather than pessimistic, about the future of journalism.

- Jan Schaffer, J-Lab, The Institute of Interactive Journalism

This was originally posted at www.j-lab.org. Knight Foundation funds the awards.

Knight Foundation President and CEO Alberto Ibargüen was awarded the Schieffer School of Journalism Ethics Award on Wednesday at Texas Christian University. This award recognizes individuals in journalism and strategic communications for their commitment to the highest ethical standards.

"Alberto Ibargüen could not be more deserving,” said John Lumpkin, director of the Schieffer School of Journalism. “His career is a model for ethics in our profession. I can say that from the perspective of the Schieffer School and also one who knew Alberto professionally in my former assignment with Associated Press."

Tom Fiedler, former executive editor at The Miami Herald while Ibargüen was publisher, says "Alberto [created] a culture of ethical decision-making that permeated the newspaper.  Of course that included an absolute insistence that the newsroom place fairness to all at the center of its journalism.  And it also included an insistence on inclusion and diversity in hiring and in newsroom assignments – so much so that during his tenure The Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald received numerous awards for having the most diverse news staffs in the United States, diversity that included race, ethnicity, gender and sexual identities.  To me, that bespeaks the essence of ethical leadership."

Read more about the Schieffer School of Journalism Ethics Award.

Earlier this week, William English "Brit" Kirwan, co-chair of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, was awarded the 2010 TIAA-CREF Theodore M. Hesburgh Award for Leadership Excellence. Kirwan is Chancellor of the University System of Maryland.

"Chancellor Kirwan brings a collaborative and cooperative leadership style to higher education welcoming all viewpoints," said Stephanie Bell-Rose, Managing Director and Head of the TIAA-CREF Institute. "This coupled with his forward thinking makes him one of the nation's most dynamic and effective higher education leaders and we are so pleased to honor him today."

Knight Foundation would like to congratulate Kirwan on this very prestigious honor. You can read more about Kirwan on the Knight Commission website. More information about the award is available here.

Sunshine Week is honoring local heroes. Mark Mahoney is one of them. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for his open government coverage and ASNE’s editorial award in 2004.

Mahoney is an editorial page editor at the Post Star in Glens Falls, N.Y. His editorials focus on the dangers of government secrecy.

Here are a few samples of his work.

-- Marly Falcon, Knight Foundation contributing blogger

Juan J. Martinez, Knight Foundation's Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, is the winner of South Florida Business Journal's 2010 CFO Awards in the non-profit category.

Martinez believes an effective CFO is only as good as his team. To that end, he has a very strong finance team ... Martinez has empowered them to solve problems and communicate freely so he can concentrate on adding value to management decisions "as opposed to being drawn constantly intro transactions."

Today, the Greater Wichita chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals gathered in celebration of National Philanthropy Day to honor six individuals or organizations. Knight Foundation was given the award for Outstanding Foundation of the year.

According to the Wichita Eagle, "National Philanthropy Day acknowledges the services provided by the nonprofit community and recognizes the impact that philanthropy has on society."

J-Lab Executive Director Jan Schaffer discusses the winners of the Knight-Batten Awards.

Last week, J-Lab announced the winners of the annual Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Media. The New York Times won top honors for a body of work that includes their debate analysis tool, Document Reader, Word Train, "Living With Less" project, custom newspaper newsbox and Represent. Special Distinction Awards went to Apture, ProPublica's ChangeTracker, PBS' Patchwork Nation, Printcasting, and the Center for Public Integrity. The Wilmington Star News won a Citizen Media Award for MyReporter.

At J-Lab, you can read more about the winners and browse through other notable entries to the contest.

2009 marks the 12th year the Knight International Journalism Awards have been given to "media professionals worldwide who have taken bold steps to keep citizens informed despite great obstacles." This year's winners -- Cao Junwu of China and Chouchou Namegabe Nabintu of the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- "were selected for their ability to tell important stories that others have shied away from despite the risks."

Read more about the award, which was presented at the Knight Foundation Conference Center at the Newseum.