Sunlight Foundation

NewsTrust.net 3.0

Sunlight grantee NewsTrust.net helps citizens make informed decisions about our democracy by making it easier to find good journalism online. Each day the non-profit, non-partisan group features a selection of articles and opinion pieces that its members rate for fairness, accuracy, context and sourcing. NewsTrust has just launched a new version of its site that promises "a better user experience with enhanced review tools, more visual appeal and higher performance." And in true Web 2.0 fashion, the redesign was partially guided by suggestions from its members.

As their site states, "it now offers a number of innovative features, such as distinctive  'trust-o-meter' ratings, separate listings for news and opinion, new review forms for beginners and professionals, new rating criteria tracking both quality and popularity, faster story submissions, personal bookmarks and special comment sections."

And I want to congratulate Fabrice Florin, NewsTrust's founder and executive editor. Ashoka recently named him as one of their social entrepreneur fellows. Way to go!

Here's a Cool Thing From WeMedia

There was a very diverse and interesting group assembled for the WeMedia conference last week in Miami. (I was there...that's my excuse for not blogging most of the week). One of the really interesting sessions was the one in which Ashoka, an international organization promoting social entrepreneurship, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, announced the launch of a new program to recruit journalist social entrepreneurs. (Full disclosure: The founder of Ashoka and I have known each other for more than 20 years and I worked with him there for a brief period.)

The Knight Foundation has given $3 million to Ashoka set up a program to find and incubate 30 socially entrepreneurial journalists. Like all Ashoka Fellows, these journalists will have a stiped that will allow them to focus full-time on their efforts to provide "lasting, visible, systemic change," as the foundation's press release stated. They are looking for nominations so send them in.

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