On May 31, this year’s second Knight News Challenge will begin accepting applications. This time the focus is on data—specifically “ideas that help unlock the power of data by collecting, processing, visualizing or otherwise making it available, understandable and actionable…”

Data about just about everything in our world is being generated at a breakneck pace, and we need better tools to make sense of it and put it to use to help individuals and communities.

Knight asks: “What are the implications—ethically, economically, socially—of having access to so much information? How can the flood of data best be channeled to make us better citizens? What stories can we tell? How will we act differently based on what we learn? What tools and products can we create out of this raw material? How do we consume data responsibly and healthily?”

This contest is open to anyone, anywhere. Winners receive a share of $5 million in funding plus support from Knight’s network of influential peers and advisors to help advance their ideas.

Deadline: June 20, 2012.

The News for Digital Journalists blog is made possible by a grant to USC Annenberg from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.