The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is offering big bucks to support innovation in community journalism. The deadline for this year’s Knight News Challenge is Oct. 15. This is a big deal, especially in the U.S. where the commercial news industry is in decline. But it’s a big deal everywhere - in a connected culture, innovation ignores geographic boundaries. If you’ve got a project in the works, or a brilliant idea percolating, I urge you to send your ideas to Knight.

Go here for details on how to apply: www.newschallenge.org.

Technorati Tags: journalism, philanthropy, investment, socialentrepreneurs

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Here’s an update on who’s coming to the Oct. 24 Power To Change The World summit, a one-day event Dale and I are organizing for UPI in Washington. More details at: www.changesummit.com.

The early-bird registration expires Sept. 20. To register, go here.

Confirmed participants include: Tom Bosco, VP and head of sales, MySpaceTV; Merrill Brown, Chairman, NowPublic; Katherine von Jan, CEO, Node US; Martin Luther King III, CEO, King Center for Social Change and Realizing the Dream Inc.; Solana Larsen, Co-Managing Editor, Global Voices; Michael Madnick, SVP, United Nations Foundation; Ellen S. Miller, Executive Director, The Sunlight Foundation; Ashfaq Ishaq, Executive Director, International Child Art Foundation; Rob Enderle, Principal Analyst, The Enderle Group; Scott Rafer, CEO, Lookery.com; Chris Versace, SVP, Agile Equity; John Walcott, Washington Bureau Chief, McClatchy Newspapers; Alan Webber, Founder, Fast Company; Kinsey Wilson, Executive Editor, USA Today.com; John Zogby, CEO, Zogby International. There’s a bigger list updated here.

And here’s this week’s prize for reading carefully: use this special code to save $150 on registration. It’s this: IFO-150. To use it now, go here.

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What’s more interesting: Jeff Jarvis skewering Yahoo!, or the smiling ass next to the story? It’s an ad for a … well, never mind, see for yourself. Meetup founder Scott Heiferman rightly notes that the ass web site is not just good, smart or prolific, like Jeff. In Scott’s words, it’s … transcendent. Yes. See Scott’s snapshot here, then explore the ass itself. Go on, it’s ok.

Wait! I didn’t mean go away for good. Go back to Jeff if you’ve got the energy. He does, that’s for sure. He’s one of the smartest media thinkers out there, a genuine A-list blogger talkaholic media pundit, and surely he must be the most prolific. If anyone else writes more than Jeff, with even a fraction of the insight or inspiration, please, just stop. It’s too much, ok? Too. Much. Jeff always has something to say, about something, or someone,  and what’s more incredible than the word count itself is that, more often than not, he’s sharp, thought-provoking and worth the read. Damn it. And thank you. You see in Jeff’s blog, BuzzMachine, the secret sauce that’s missing from most daily journalism, or most media of any sort - unrelenting passion. It’s lovely - lovely to experience, and lovely simply to know it exists.

Here’s Jeff on the Yahoo-Huffington-Slate debate mashup fiasco, in which Yahoo! was supposed to provide tools to allow users to mix and match video soundbites from presidential candiates, but instead, as Wired explained, Yahoo! offered nothing more than a glorified video player:

The much vaunted Yahoo/Huffington Post/Slate presidential debate “mash-up” is a pathetic insult to the voters that is years behind in internet culture.

Go Jeff.

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