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Information Stories tell of personal stakes in healthy info communities

Posted by Amy Garmer on Apr 17, 2013 in Blog, Civic Engagement, Featured, Local Journalism, Open Government, Spotlight, Universal Broadband

“What’s at stake when local news and information flow doesn’t serve all members of a community equally well? How can people respond?”
These questions lie at the heart of Information Stories, a riveting series of twelve three-to-five minute videos that show how people can overcome the powerlessness caused by living in an information vacuum. Combining the [...]

Implementing the Recommendations of the Knight Commission

Posted by KnightComm on Jun 22, 2012 in Blog, Civic Engagement, Digital Literacy, Local Journalism, Open Government, Public Service Media, Universal Broadband, White Paper Series

The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy released its report “Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age” in 2009 with 15 recommendations to better meet community information needs. Immediately following the release of “Informing Communities,” the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program and the John S. and James L. [...]

Adam Thierer: Thinking about the Future of Informed Communities and Journalism

Posted by KnightComm on Apr 18, 2012 in Civic Engagement, Digital Literacy, Local Journalism, News, Open Government, Public Service Media, Universal Broadband

Democracy can likely get by with less information and civic engagement than some suggest. But that doesn’t mean we can get by without any.

Nicol Turner-Lee: Mayor Emanuel Must Shed Old Paradigms for True Transparency Reform

Posted by KnightComm on Apr 18, 2012 in News, Open Government

If Mayor Emanuel wishes to foster a more transparent Chicago, he must not only continue the release of city data, but ensure that it is put to creative uses that serve the public.

Amplify accountability, technology to boost open government

Posted by Amy Garmer on Mar 12, 2012 in Blog, Civic Engagement, Open Government

What open government needs to look like in the coming decade and beyond involves at least three core considerations: 1) inclusive dialog around potential changes to laws on open records and open meetings; 2) the melding of Internet and mobile technologies with ideals of government accountability; and 3) nourishment for a reformulated news and information ecosystem to fulfill the public interest with robust accountability-driven reporting, teaching and collaboration.

Six Strategies for More Open and Participatory Government

Posted by Amy Garmer on Mar 11, 2012 in Civic Engagement, Open Government, White Paper Series

Americans are demanding more transparency and accountability from their governments at all levels, goals that are easier to achieve when governments have made a commitment to operating transparently and making public information truly open and accessible to the public. Government Transparency: Six Strategies for More Open and Participatory Government, a policy paper by Jon Gant [...]

Assessing Community Information Needs: A Practical Guide

Posted by Amy Garmer on Oct 17, 2011 in Blog, Civic Engagement, Digital Literacy, Local Journalism, Open Government, Public Service Media, Spotlight, Universal Broadband, White Paper Series

Free flowing news and information is essential to the health of democratic communities, but not all information environments are equally effective at meeting community information needs. What can a community do to measure the quality of its information environment, identify its information needs and take steps to build a more robust news and information ecosystem?
Assessing [...]

Report Cites Need for More Public Engagement in Open Government Proposals

Posted by Amy Garmer on Aug 31, 2011 in Blog, Civic Engagement, Open Government

A new report out this month finds that, while President Obama’s Open Government Directive has been a catalyst for thinking about new ways to engage the public in governance and experiment with new tools and techniques to do so, the plans proposed by most agencies lack important elements and key features to fully and meaningfully [...]

What are the Information Needs of Communities?

Posted by KnightComm on Aug 15, 2011 in Blog, Civic Engagement, Digital Literacy, Featured, Local Journalism, Open Government, Public Service Media, Universal Broadband

In the digital age, technological, economic and behavioral changes are dramatically altering how Americans communicate. Information is more fragmented. Communications systems no longer run along the same lines as local governance.

2011 Knight News Challenge Winners Announced

Posted by Amy Garmer on Jun 22, 2011 in Blog, Civic Engagement, Local Journalism, Open Government, Public Service Media

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced the winners of the 2011 Knight News Challenge at the MIT-Knight Civic Media Conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts today. Sixteen ideas that push the future of news and information will receive a total of $4.7 million to foster innovation at “the intersection of journalism and technology,” according to Knight Foundation President Alberto [...]

FCC Releases Knight Commission-inspired Report on Information Needs

Posted by KnightComm on Jun 09, 2011 in Local Journalism, Open Government, Spotlight, Universal Broadband

Today the FCC released the findings of its inquiry into the Future of Media, a project begun in early 2010 in response to the Knight Commission. In a report over 450 pages long, author Steve Waldman and the Working Group on Information Needs of Communities inspect the shifting media landscape and lay out how relevant [...]

The Future of Democracy, According to Knight Reports

Posted by KnightComm on Mar 17, 2011 in Local Journalism, News, Open Government

The keys to a more open and transparent democracy include increased broadband access and a steady flow of government data into online communities, according to two white papers released by the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy.

The Community Information Toolkit, Version 1.0

Posted by KnightComm on Mar 04, 2011 in Blog, Civic Engagement, Digital Literacy, Open Government, Public Service Media, Spotlight, Universal Broadband

At the 2011 Media Learning Seminar, an annual gathering hosted by the Knight Foundation, hundreds of community foundation leaders and journalism and technology experts previewed the beta version of the Community Information Toolkit, a set of tools and steps designed to help communities take stock of their news and information flow and take actionable steps [...]

GovFresh: New recommendations for improving local open government and creating online hubs

Posted by KnightComm on Mar 01, 2011 in Civic Engagement, News, Open Government

Alex Howard, Government 2.0 Correspondent for O’Reilly Radar, provided a good wrap-up of last week’s Roundtable on implementing the recommendations for government transparency and creating community hubs.
New recommendations for improving local open government and creating online hubs
By Alex Howard · February 25, 2011
Today, the Aspen Institute hosted a roundtable on government transparency [...]

Five Strategies to Revive Civic Communication

Posted by KnightComm on Mar 01, 2011 in Blog, Civic Engagement, Open Government, White Paper Series

Promoting greater civic engagement and investing in the capacity of citizens to engage with civic information and one another to solve public problems are among the recommendations made by the Knight Commission. Civic Engagement and Community Information: Five Strategies to Revive Civic Communication, a new policy paper by Peter Levine, calls on community and elected [...]