Today the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced the 10 local information projects that have won the 2013 Knight Community Information Challenge. This year, for the first time, KCIC gave priority to open government projects, aimed at improving the interaction between people and their governments.

A few of the winning open government projects are:

• Chattanooga Open Government Collaborative, $50,000. In partnership with the Benwood Foundation, this project will build on prior successful efforts to make city data more accessible. KCIC funding will help train key stakeholders in using the available information.
• The Lens, $50,000. In partnership with the Greater New Orleans Foundation, this nonprofit, public-interest newsroom will use Document Cloud to collect all public contracts in the city and make them fully searchable and publicly available.
• Structured education reporting in Massachusetts, $50,000. The Boston Foundation has teamed with public radio station WBUR and Glass Eye Media (founders of Homicide Watch) to launch a statewide education reporting effort. The project will adapt the structured beat approach pioneered in Homicide Watch.

See the full list of winners.

KCIC helps community and place-based foundations become leaders in supporting local news and information, a vital component of healthy communities. Knight will celebrate the winning foundations at Sept. 24 event at the Council on Foundations' annual fall conference.

According to Knight, in the six years that KCIC has been running, nearly half of U.S. community foundations have applied to the Challenge. (All projects must have a commitment of support from a community foundation partner, and applications are submitted by the foundation partner.) So far, KCIC has supported over 100 winning projects, and the Challenge has been extended through 2015.

In addition to matching funds, KCIC winners receive expanded technical assistance, technology consulting, year-round training through the Knight Digital Media Center and the annual Media Learning Seminar (the premiere event where foundations explore media trends and exchange insights).

"Whether you're interested in improving schools, affordable housing or air quality, good information is a key ingredient to social change," said Bahia Ramos, director of Knight's Community Foundations Program. "A growing number of community and place-based foundations realize that and are stepping up to invest in meeting community information needs."