Knight Foundation Media Learning Seminar, 2014. From left; Alberto Ibarguen, President & CEO of Knight Foundation, Kelly Ryan, CEO of Incourage Community Foundation, Chris J. Dagget, President and CEO of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and Emmett Carson, CEO of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, discuss ideas during a plenary session.

While the digital age offers evolving opportunities for informing communities, navigating the terrain can be a challenge for civic and philanthropic leaders.

That issue will be at the heart of the conversations at Knight Foundation’s 2015 Media Learning Seminar, a gathering of community and place-based foundations, media and tech leaders taking place May 18-19 in Miami.

The sessions will be streamed live, starting at 9 a.m. Monday, May 18, at knightfoundation.org/live.

Presenters will offer a range of ideas on how foundations and leaders can help best meet local information needs, and both live and lead digitally. They include Sree Sreenivasan, chief digital officer of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, talking about how institutions like his go digital. Susan Crawford, Harvard professor and author, will talk about how cities can use data to be more open and responsive. And futurist Amy Webb will provide insights into what’s new and what’s next in digital media.

Also, on Thursday morning, foundation leaders – from Silicon Valley to rural Wisconsin and Vermont – will talk about the impact they are having through their own news and information projects and what they are learning along the way. Four of those foundations, the latest group supported by Knight Foundation’s Knight Community Information Challenge, have been meeting as a cohort over the past year, and using human-centered design training to inform their work. Each will talk about how that process, which emphasizes iteration and puts the user at the center of the discussion, has influenced their projects.

Knight Foundation started the Media Learning Seminar eight years ago, as the seismic shifts in the media industry became apparent and community leaders searched for ways to help keep people informed about important issues. About the same time, the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Community issued 15 recommendations – including rethinking public media, expanding the reach of broadband access and increasing digital and media literacy. Knight Foundation encouraged community foundations to take a leadership role in finding and funding solutions.

Since then, these foundations have launched close to 100 projects with matching funding from Knight Foundation. The seminar is Knight’s way of both building and bringing this network of funders together, to exchange insights and ideas.

Please join us next week via the live stream, and follow #infoneeds on Twitter.

View the full schedule for the Media Learning Seminar.