Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy Co-Chairs: Theodore B. Olson, partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP ; former Solicitor General of the United States Marissa Mayer, vice president of search product and user experience, Google Commission Members: Danah Boyd, doctoral candidate, University of California, Berkeley, and a fellow at the Harvard University Law School Berkman Center for Internet and Society John S. Carroll, former editor, Los Angeles Times Robert W. Decherd, chairman, president and CEO, A.H. Belo Corporation Reed E. Hundt, adviser, McKinsey & Company; former chairman, Federal Communications Commission Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO, NAACP Mary E. Junck, president and CEO, Lee Enterprises Inc. Monica Lozano, publisher and CEO of La Opinión; senior vice president of ImpreMedia, LLC Lisa MacCallum, managing director, Nike Foundation Andrew Mooney, executive director for Chicago Region, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Donna D. Nicely, director, Nashville Public Library Michael K. Powell, chairman, The MK Powell Group; former Chairman, Federal Communications Commission Rey Ramsey, CEO, One Economy Corporation Paul Sagan, president and CEO, Akamai Ex Officio: Alberto Ibargüen, president and CEO, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Walter Isaacson, president and CEO, The Aspen Institute

Cristal Williams is project director at ASNE and can be reached at cwilliams@asne.org.

AS THE MEDIA LANDSCAPE CHANGES, are local communities getting the information they need to foster civic activity, encourage public accountability and solve problems?

Those are a few of the questions a newly formed group of civic leaders and media executives is charged with addressing.

The 15-member Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy (knightcomm.org) is conducting a series of meetings and community forums with citizens, business leaders and government officials to ascertain existing and forthcoming information gaps.

“The charge of the commission is straightforward,” says Alberto Ibargüen, president and CEO of Knight Foundation. “Articulate the information needs of communities in this democracy, determine where we are today and propose public policy that will encourage market solutions.”

In addition to media representatives, commission members represent varied backgrounds, including corporate executives, civic leaders, nonprofits and government. It is led by co-chairs Ted Olson, former solicitor general of the United States, and Marissa Mayer, vice president of search product and user experience at Google.

The commission's first meeting was held in late June at the Knight Conference Center at the Newseum in Washington. Topics of discussion included technology, the future of community information, economic sustainability and the state of the media. A second meeting focusing on journalism was held in early August in Aspen.

The meetings will help the commission develop a common basis of understanding, so it can best propose solutions, according to Peter Shane, a law professor at Ohio State University Law School and executive director of the commission.

In addition, three community forums were planned for the fall in Silicon Valley, Philadelphia and Missoula, Mont. Early next year, the commission will issue a series of recommendations for public policy, the nonprofit sector and the media. The Knight Commission is a joint project of Knight Foundation and the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program.

Information, via traditional news, journalism and digital sources, is the key component in making sure communities make informed decisions, according to the commission.

Formation of the Commission is part of the Media Innovation Initiatives created by Knight to address the information needs of communities in a democracy. They include:

• Knight community foundation initiative, a $20 million grant program that will invite community foundations to propose ideas to meet information needs in their communities.
• The Knight News Challenge, which funds projects that use digital media to deliver news and information to geographically defined communities.
• The Knight Center for Digital Excellence, a nonprofit consultancy that helps communities across the United States ensure digital access for every citizen. *