This is based on a post to my online consultation and e-participation
online community of practice. See:
http://groups.dowire.org/r/topic/100946 [1]

Have folks taken a look at the Knight Foundation's 21st Century News
Challenge site?

http://www.newschallenge.org [2]

The deadline is Dec. 31 for letters of inquiry.

What I am trying to sort out is what "news" really means to them and
how the kinds of citizen-based interactive "conversations" that E-
Democracy.Org hosts might fit.

In short does "news" have to the be the central starting point or as
Eric Newton in his audio message says can we be focused first on
"smart new ways to help communities talk to each other, understand
each other, in the words of Jack Knight, be able to act in their own
true interests" and come at this from the community perspective
toward the "news" world.

Any thoughts? Any contacts who can help?

Cheers,
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.Org

P.S. I've drafted up a list of over 20 *potential* letter of inquiry
topics that. What do folks think would be most interesting and
"newsy" enough:

http://www.e-democracy.org/wiki/Knight_Foundation_Grants [3]

3 Leadership - Issues Forum Expansion
4 Leadership - Sharing Online Facilitation Strategies with Citizen
Media Efforts
5 Leadership - Citizen Media Online Community of Practice via
Democracies Online
6 Leadership - Evolving from FOI to IDR Laws - Information
Dissemination Requirements
7 Leadership - MyBallot.Net - Open Source for Local Ballot, Polling
Place Look-up, Add Talking Ballot Feature
8 Leadership - Local E-Debate Platform and Guide
9 Field Test - Local Democracy Tune-Up
10 Pilot - Citizen Survey
11 Pilot - Local Mashup
12 Pilot - Multilingual Neighborhood Forum
13 Pilot - Adapting Open Source E-mail Contact Management for
Citizen Media Efforts
14 Pilot - Community Knowledge Sharing - Cross Community Q and A
15 Trial - Glocalising Online Participation
16 Trial - Democaster - Democracy Webcasting and Media Partners
17 Trial - Online Townhall Event
18 Trial - Neighborhood News Tools for Neighborhood "Life" Forums
19 Prototype - Local Solutions Exchange on Public Priorities
20 Prototype - Public Meeting Notifier
21 Prototype - Local Politics Content Monitor
22 Open - Online U.S. Presidential E-Debate
23 Open - Open Source GroupServer Enhancements for Developing
Democracies
24 Open - The Virtual Shopping Mall? The Impact of Ownership and
Governance on Public Perceptions and Use of Local Interactive Media
25 Open - Media and E-Democracy Index - Media Responsiveness Online

^ ^ ^ ^
Steven L. Clift - - - W: http://publicus.net [4]
Minneapolis - - - - E: clift@publicus.net [5]
Minnesota - - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667
USA - - - - Skype/MSN/Y!/AIM: netclift

Join Democracies Online: http://dowire.org [6]
Start an Issues Forum: http://e-democracy.org/if [7]