• Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities

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08 October 2009 This report focuses on the information people actually need, and works back from there. 

The US based Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy focuses not on  the media, but on communities, in the places where people live and work. The Commission was given a deceptively simple charge: 

1. Articulate the information needs of a community in a democracy,
   
   
2. Describe the state of things in the United States, and  
   
   
3. Propose public policy directions that would help lead us from where we are today to where we ought to be.

This report focuses on the information people actually need, and works back from there, suggesting ways that the flow of information and its uses may be enhanced. That is a fundamentally different approach from traditional media policy that sought to promote or regulate existing media. Since the current pace of information technology change is rapid to the point of defying regularization or regulation, the Commission’s approach is to steer to the true north of what is constant, the need for the free flow of information in a democracy.