Here at Knight Foundation we have a healthy list of to-dos as we head towards the December 1 Knight News Challenge’application deadline. Luckily, the contest has generated a spirit of participation in the field and we don’t have to do everything ourselves. Over the last few weeks, I’ve come across at least three (unofficial, non-Knight Foundation endorsed) attempts to help improve News Challenge’applications:

• Lisa Williams, a Knight News Challenge winner in 2007 for Placeblogger, is offering to review applications. She’s holding ten appointment slots on November 22. (Warning: “if you make an appointment and don’t show up….I will TWEET ABOUT IT.”)
• Hacks/Hackers is a collaboration that kicked into gear this year with the help of 2007 Knight News Challenge winner Rich Gordon and Knight Foundation consultant Jenny 8. Lee, among many others. H/H ‘has posted’an open Google Doc to match people with News Challenge ideas.
• Goodtree & co. scraped the application site and created a Word doc and a text document. One result, I hope, is that you can see how easy it is to fill out the application– once you settle on an idea.
• Updated: 2010 Winner, Jeff Reifman (NewsCloud), created a public Google Docs News Challenge template to use as a scratch/working space for the longform answers of the 2010 Knight Foundation News Challenge. It’s also a great way to prepare your answers if you’re collaborating with other individuals. He uses Docs’ Tools -> Word Count on selected answers to measure how much space an applicant has.

You can always reach out for some official Knight Foundation advice at NewsChallenge.org, @knightfdn on Twitter or to newschallenge[at]knightfoundation[dot]org.