Knight News Challenge: Round 2 Launches

The Knight News Challenge, in which winners get grants ranging from tiny to huge, is in its second year. Here’s the Knight Foundation’s pitch:

It’s time to enter this year’s Knight News Challenge, which awards big money for innovative ideas using digital experiments to transform community news.

The contest is run by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Last year’s winners won awards ranging from $15K to $5 million.

Winning projects included:

* Open-source software that will let citizens find public information about their neighborhoods.

* Young journalists covering the 2008 presidential election on cell phones, for cell phones.

* Online games to inform and engage players about key issues confronting New York City.

* Digital newscasts for Philadelphia’s immigrant community distributed through a new citywide wireless platform.

Anyone worldwide can apply at http://www.newschallenge.org.

This is for real. If you have a great idea, give it a shot.

(Note: Knight sponsored a project here last year, and the News Challenge winners this time included Placeblogger and the Citizen Media Law Project, which I’m advising.)