Until Friday, May 8, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. EDT, you can let the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy (KnightComm.org) know your information needs on the public input site.

Together with PBS Engage, the Knight Commission has created a place for you to answer five questions about your information needs, ask Google’s Marissa Mayer (Co-chair of the Commission) questions, and comment on the draft version of the Commission’s report.

The public input pages will be live until the deadline tomorrow night, and you can also follow the conversation through the #publicinput hashtag on Twitter.

Tell us your information needs and please help us spread the word–

You can also share their thoughts with the Commission by calling (202) 721-5599 or writing to: Knight Commission at The Aspen Institute, One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20036.

Mark Glaser of MediaShift blogged yesterday on the response so far to the Knight Commission (on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy)’s questions.

You can answer the questions here.

Below, an excerpt from the post:

Problem: Where can people find the local information they need, whether it’s about a school board meeting, a new construction project or a nearby robbery? Solution: A community hub, with all the information aggregated in one online source and pushed out via libraries, in-person meetings, community radio, small run print publications and cable access TV.

That’s my conclusion after studying all the input received by PBS Engage when it passed on the questions from the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy. Those questions all sought to get to the heart of one issue: What are the information needs of people in local communities, and what can we do as a society to serve those needs? I also asked that question on a post at Idea Lab, which David Sasaki answered with an excellent view of how mapping applications can boost community involvement.

Read the rest of the post with his eight steps, and please leave comments on the MediaShift post.

The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy (knightcomm.org) wants to hear about your information needs starting today through Friday, May 8th on the PBS Engage site (the social media hub for PBS efforts):

pbs.org/engage/publicinput

On the site, there are five questions you can leave a comment on (or leave a general comment here) along with blog posts and video from the Commission’s seven public forums and the Commission’s preliminary report (that you can comment on in a Scribd shared document).

Marissa Mayer, Google’s Vice President of Search Products & User Experience, and Co-Chair of the Commission, will post answers to questions about the Commission’s work via Google Moderator at www.pbs.org/publicinput on May 15th.

You can also leave a phone message for the Commission (202) 721-5599 or write to them at: The Aspen Institute, One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20036.

Questions? Let us know in the comments. Please leave all comments for the Commission on the pbs.org/engage/publicinput site.

In a recent speech, Knight CEO and president Alberto Ibargüen announced a new media innovation strategy and four projects that are part of this strategy.

You can read the entire speech here; abbreviated descriptions of the four projects (they share similar names) are below.

Knight News Challenge (newschallenge.org)

The Knight News Challenge funds ideas that use digital media to deliver news and information to geographically defined communities.

This is a yearly contest about the future of local news delivery (and includes projects in a range of media areas such as mobile, video, and microfunding).

Knight Commission on Information Needs (knightcomm.org)

The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, in partnership with the Aspen Institute, will propose public policy that will facilitate meeting those needs.

This is a new group with fifteen members that will make recommendations in 2009 about core community information needs.

Knight Center of Digital Excellence (knightcenter.info)

The Knight Center of Digital Excellence is a not-for-profit consultancy to help communities across the United States ensure digital access to every citizen.

This is sometimes called “universal access,” and the goal is to accelerate digital access projects across the U.S.

Knight Community Information Challenge (informationneeds.org)

Community Foundation initiatives to meet the information needs of their communities are matched by funds from Knight Foundation.

This is to help community foundations use media and technology to deliver information to their communities.

Questions? Leave a comment below.

Youth digital culture scholar danah boyd is one of the fifteen members of the new Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy.

Today, she is at the Newseum for the Commission’s first meeting; below, she talks about her work and the information lifestyle she hopes to voice for the group:

Video by V.P. of Communications Marc Fest

You can watch the Commission’s live webcast until 5 pm ET today here.

What questions do you have for danah and the other members of the Commission?

Today, the fifteen members of the Knight Commission on Information Needs of a Community in a Democracy meet for the first time at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. to discuss democracy, economics, human behavior, and technology.

A joint project of Knight Foundation and the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program, the meeting will be webcast live from 10 am to 5 pm ET from the Commission Web site. Go to the webcast >

Yesterday, Michelle P B Ferrier of MyTopiaCafe wrote a post for Poynter Online’s E-Media Tidbits about social capital and research she hopes the Commission will build on:

I hope that this commission examines the groundwork already done by the Saguaro Seminar folks, as well as research by the Saguaro short-form survey instruments could be adapted to be deployed on hyperlocal online communities and blogs to test whether the content, functions, design, architecture and personalities create a rich exchange — and growth — of social capital.

What do you think the Commission should discuss today on the topics of democracy, economics, human behavior, and technology?

(The next meeting, August 9th, will focus on journalism.)

Yesterday, fifteen members of the new Knight Commission on Information Needs of Community in Democracy were announced.

Focused on information flows, the Commission is a joint project of Knight Foundation and the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program, led by co-chairs Ted Olson, former Solicitor General of the United States, and Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Product and User Experience at Google. Peter Shane, a distinguished law professor at Ohio State University Law School, is the executive director. The other Commission members are listed here.

From the press release:

“Information is a core community need,” said Walter Isaacson, president and CEO, The Aspen Institute. “We are fortunate to have such a diverse, open-minded and innovative group of individuals assembled to address this topic which is so important to our democracy going forward. We believe we can put the power of technology to use in strengthening community information, and through that information, communities themselves.”

“The charge of the Commission is straightforward,” says Alberto Ibargüen, president and CEO of Knight Foundation. “Articulate the information needs of communities in this democracy; determine where we are today; and propose public policy that will encourage market solutions.”

On June 24th, the Commission will meet in the Knight Conference Center at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. to discuss “the integration of technology and the future of community information, economic sustainability, and the changing media landscape.”

The meeting will be web cast live on the Commission’s Web site: www.knightcomm.org

What questions do you have for the Commission?