From NFOIC executive director Ken Bunting: The Knight Foundation has announced the latest winners in its Knight Community Information Challenge. This is an important ongoing partnership. Congratulations to the winning projects, and thanks to Knight and the community foundations around the country that are supporting them.
From Knight Foundation: About this time for the last several years, Knight Foundation has celebrated its relationship with community foundations. We’re at it again today, as we announce Knight Community Information Challenge.
The challenge helps community and place-based foundations become leaders in supporting local news and information, a vital component, we believe, of healthy communities.
We added a new twist this year and encouraged Open Government projects that improve the way people and their governments interact. We see this as a promising area where information and technology can make a difference in engaging more people in local issues. Half of this year’s winners fall into that category.
In Chattanooga, Tenn., an open data collaborative will train the community in how to use the data. In Los Angeles, the idea is to make the city’s budget more understandable, and use that process as an entryway for getting more people involved in the city.
We also have several projects that will strengthen local journalism. The Boston Foundation, for example, is partnering with WBUR and the founders of the news startup Homicide Watch to apply their structured beat reporting model to education coverage. We also have projects to expand news in rural areas of New Mexico and through a new radio partnership in Yakima Valley, Wash.
We believe that this year’s projects are representative of the 170 entries we received from across the country. We look forward to watching these 10 projects develop.
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