TechPresident.com wns Knight-Batten award

TechPresident.com, a data-rich, nonpartisan group blog that covers real-time, online activity of the 2008 presidential candidates -- and chronicles online content from voters who will elect them, is this year's $10,000 Grand Prize winner in the Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism.

The site invites every-day people to help break campaign news and it tracks voter-generated videos on YouTube, candidate "friends" on MySpace and Facebook, blog mentions on Technorati, voter demands for appearances on Eventful, and voter-generated photos on Flickr.

"The site not only reports on, but encourages, citizens to participate more directly in the political process," the panel of judges said. "It's an amazing source of information from a non-traditional news outlet." The site is published by the Personal Democracy Forum.

Winning a $2,000 First Prize is another non-traditional news organization, the Council on Foreign Relations. CFR.org's rich media "Crisis Guides" present compelling, in-depth news about the world's most pressing crisis zones. "This is an institution stepping up and honoring the best of journalism. It's filling an absolutely articulated need," the judges said.

Four other innovative efforts each won $1,000 awards. And, for the first time, the judges cited four more creative ideas with Honorable Mentions.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation invests in journalism excellence worldwide and in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Since 1950 the foundation has granted more than $300 million to advance quality journalism and freedom of expression. It focuses on projects with the potential to create transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

J-Lab helps news organizations and citizens use new media technologies to create fresh ways for people to participate in public life. It also administers the Knight Citizen News Network (www.kcnn.org) and the New Voices community media grant program (www.j-newvoices.org). Or click on the headline to read the rest of this article.