Knight Foundation announces News Challenge awardees

The "Knight Foundation":http://www.knightfoundation.org/ today announced the "award winners":http://www.newschallenge.org/winners/ of its innovation prize, "The News Challenge":http://www.newschallenge.org/. I've been following the challenge and was very curious to see who they would ultimately fund--the list of folks is downright impressive. What do I like about what the good folks at Knight did? # _They opened the contest up to companies, bloggers/individuals, schools/university, and nonprofits._ Some of the best innovations aren't sector specific and, in fact, such criteria can often lead funders to overlook innovations that will truly have impact and scale. For goodness sakes, they awarded a prize to "MTV":http://www.mtv.com! # _They acknowledge the importance of open source and community commons._ "Adrian Holovaty":http://www.holovaty.com/ is amazing because he thinks with a hacker mind *and* a journalist mind. In the web framework world, "Django":http://www.djangoproject.com/ is the equivalent of sliced *and* toasted bread. His site, "Chicago Crime":http://www.chicagocrime.org, unfolds data visualization in a real time mashup. # _They aren't afraid to fund things that challenge the business model of Knight Corporation._ You know what? Some of these folks--with or without Knight funding--are disruptive innovations to the mainstream media. At worst, Knight (I assume the foundation and the company) will learn about new media, citizen journalism, and Web 2.0. At best, they become part of the mix. # _They embrace the creative._ Much like the "MacArthur Genius awards":http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.959463/k.9D7D/Fellows_Progr..., this is a celebration and recognition of the Creative. As "Guy Kawasaki":http://blog.guykawasaki.com says, "Make meaning". Every single one of these award winners does. This isn't about widgets or service hours, it is about changing the paradigm. What else? # I'd love a way to track the progress of each of these projects as they go forward. For the blogs, it seems easy--just subscribe to the RSS feed. For the others, how will I know what is going on? # Digg style voting. Take a look at what's being done by "NetSquared":http://www.netsquared.org and "Digg":http://www.digg.com. I wonder how interactive "vote for this" buttons might impact next years' award winners. # Change the animated sun on the News Challenge site. (This one is just a personal opinion, but I think it is on the cheesy side. :) Personal congratulations to "Paul Lamb":http://www.newschallenge.org/winners/lamb, Zfellow and CTFC innovator, "Leslie Rule":http://www.newschallenge.org/winners/rule who along with "KQED":http://www.kged.org is leader in the digital storytelling field and part of our grantee network, and "JD Lasica":http://www.newschallenge.org/winners/lasica, who graciously presented at our Digital Storytelling conference earlier this year.