James Burns, chief technology officer at Zeega in a video by Jon Vidar

Zeega is an open-source HTML 5 platform for creating interactive documentaries and inventing new forms of storytelling.

Above, James Burns, chief technology officer at Zeega, describes how the tool will make it easy to collaboratively produce, curate and publish participatory multimedia projects online and on mobile devices.

Previously, Burns built the API-driven website Mapping Main Street, constructing a system that automatically interrelates media feeds from across the web into thematic and geographic pathways. 

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

Yesterday, we profiled another 2011 Knight News Challenge winner, Panda, a newsroom data app that provides a place to store, search and share data. 

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.