Brian Boyer, news applications editor at the Chicago Tribune, describes PANDA in a video by Jon Vidar.

Earlier this month PANDA, which helps news organizations better use public information by creating new software that cleans up and helps analyze it, went beta.

Users can now test PANDA Project Alpha and give feedback on how it’s doing.

Above, Brian Boyer describes the project’s latest developments. 

Boyer is news applications editor at the Chicago Tribune, where he was the 2010 employee of the year. He runs projects, designs products and writes code, all in the name of journalism. Previously, he earned a master’s in journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, on a scholarship for developers funded by Knight Foundation. 

PANDA was a 2011 winner of the Knight News Challenge, an international media innovation contest funding digital news experiments that inform and engage communities.

Michael Maness, vp/journalism and media innovation at Knight Foundation, recently gave a preview of the 2012 Knight News Challenge. The challenge is going to be broken up into faster, more focused competitions held three times next year – a way to be more responsive to the fast-paced culture of the start-up world.