How great would it be for web sites to'let us know when'news'stories we've been following have been updated or corrected? How about also seeing'a box of information explaining the type of sourcing used within the story, as well as a link to the organization's'editorial'standards?

According to an article released by the Columbia Journalism Review, hNews is trying to make all of these features possible.

hNews is a microformat for news being developed by the Media Standards Trust and the Web Science Research Initiative. It is also a winner of last year's Knight News Challenge grant.

For an example of how this would work, take a look at this article. Scroll down to the bottom of the text and place the cursor over the blue box labeled 'Value Added.' A small box of text will pop up that lists the article title, author, date, published and the last date the article was updated. This information is automatically generated, thanks to hNews.'

The goal of hNews is to:

Design a way for content creators to add information on their sources to their reports, as a form of 'source tagging.' For instance, a reporter could note that an article was based on personal observations, interview with eyewitnesses or specific, original documents. Filters would then use this data ' the 'story behind the story' ' to help find high-quality articles. A reader searching the phrase 'Pakistan riots' for example, might find 9,000 articles. But filtering by 'eyewitness accounts' would yield a more selective list.

Currently, the Associated Press and AOL are encoding articles using hNews.

 

hNews is hoping to bring more transparency to news. Its features will provide people with the back story of an article they're reading.

Visit the CJR Web site to read the complete story on hNews.

--'Marly Falcon, Knight Foundation contributing blogger

Oklahoma Watch is a Knight Community Information Challenge winner that aims to bring attention and action on issues such as the incarceration of women through independent journalism in partnership with established news organizations around the state.

It officially launches Jan. 30 but is already publishing via a new website and its partner publications. We checked in this week for a status report from editor Tom Lindley.

Q. When did the site launch?

A. While our official “Women in Prison” project launch date has been set for Jan. 30, we unofficially launched Oklahomawatch.org  Dec. 2 to coincide with the publication of a three-part newspaper print/online series that was produced in conjunction with Oklahoma’s two major daily newspapers and distributed to the rest of the state’s newspapers.

The series focused on the state’s prison overcrowding and budgetary crisis and was meant to give lawmakers something to think about as they neared the deadline for filing bills for the 2011 legislative session. We felt it was important to

Over the next seven years, the Knight Foundation will give $70 million to community foundations in the 26 Knight communities where the Knight brothers once owned newspapers. The effort will help the Foundation focus on its ideal of fostering informed, engaged communities.

Since 1988, Knight has worked closely with community foundations in these cities, and believes they offer an important grassroots grasp of the issues that can help guide funding. From the release:

'Information is an essential community need and community foundations were established to meet core needs,' said Alberto Ibarügen, Knight Foundation's president and CEO. 'They also only exist and thrive because of community engagement and contributions. That makes them ideal partners to help us understand and advance local community engagement, focused on ensuring that these communities have the information they need to mange their affairs in our democracy.'

 

A new position will be created at Knight Foundation's Miami headquarters to direct the initiative.

"Our goal is to better coordinate and focus our initiatives in the Knight communities and use our resources in the most effective way possible,' said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation's vice president for communities. 'The new director will work together with foundation staff and advisory committees in each Knight community to guide the local foundations on use of the funds.'

Read the full news release for more details on the initiative.