Paul Schmelzer over at the Minnesota Monitor writes:

Clift and Paul win News Challenge grants: Two Minnesotans are winners of the Knight News Challenge, an initiative to “transform community news” through the innovative use of digital technology in local settings. Steven Clift of the online community e-democracy.org won $15,000 to develop the blog “The Ideas Factory,” which will “generate and share big ideas from the world of citizen engagement.” Nora Paul, director of the Institute for New Media Studies at the University of Minnesota, won a $250,000 grant to create “a news simulation environment which lets citizens play through a complex, evolving news story through interaction with the newsmakers.” Congratulations!

The Institute for New Media Studies is also involved in The UnConvention, and this project seems like it might be an exciting thing to feature under our umbrella.