Craigslist founder seeds open source news idea

Craig Newmark has given $10,000 of his personal money to help test an idea conceived by Jay Rosen to involve the public in assigning and funding news coverage. The non-profit venture will be called NewAssignment.net. “The betting is that (some) people will donate to works they can see are going to be great because the open source methods allow for that glimpse ahead,” Rosen explains. Professional editors and journalists would do the reporting, yet the public is in the driver’s seat when it comes to assignments. “If open sourcing really works, and the assignment page is strong, it should generate excitement about the investigation yet to be done, a sense that ‘someone has to do this story.’” Sounds very promising.