We've covered many of the twists and turns that have taken place in the world of journalism over the years, including the citizen journalism efforts at OhmyNews and Danish Avisen. Now a new experimental site in the San Francisco Bay Area is offering community control on a different level by giving readers a chance to fund the stories they want to see professionally written.

Due for launch this fall, Spot.us is a nonprofit that lets any individual or journalist post an idea for an untold story in the local community. Professional journalists then write pitches based on those ideas and place them in the site's wiki, where members of the community can view them and vote—via micro-pledge—on the stories that are most important to them. (Examples currently on the site have a distinctly eco-minded focus, such as the inaugural one entitled "Ethanol Could Be a Weak Link in State's Energy Network," which has already reached its USD 250 goal.) Supporters pay only if their topic wins full support, in which case freelance journalists are commissioned to report and write the story. Spot.us then publishes it in its news feeds under a Creative Commons license and offers it for free to local media outlets. Exclusive rights to the story will be granted in exchange for a percentage of the original donations, Spot.us says.

Spot.us, which is currently in what it calls pre-alpha mode using a grant from the Knight Foundation, encourages participants to limit their donations to a maximum of 20 percent of the story's costs, and will enforce that through technology once the site goes live, it says. It is also currently vetting pitches and reporters, but aims ultimately to let the marketplace do that. Also of interest is that Spot.us uses activism site The Point—which we covered not long ago—to coordinate its funding efforts for each pitch.

One of the big concerns about citizen journalism has been that it lacks the rigor and integrity formal journalistic training imparts, as well as the trust that comes from the longstanding reputations traditional news organizations typically possess. Spot.us promises to do away with such concerns while still giving the community a strong guiding voice. Will this be a new model for news media? We'll keep you posted. In the meantime, one to watch!

Website: www.spot.us
Contact: www.spot.us/contact

Spotted by: Julie Sammons

Polystyrene products have been used for years as home insulation and Styrofoam packaging, but the petroleum-based materials are infamous for the toll they take on the environment. Ecovative, a Troy, N.Y., start-up, aims to replace such products with an organic alternative derived from fungus and agricultural waste.

Rather than being manufactured from preexisting ingredients—a process that inevitably takes considerable energy—Ecovative's Greensulate is actually grown afresh. A mixture including water, recycled paper and rice hulls (a form of agricultural waste) is injected with living mushroom cells inside a mold and then placed in a dark environment. There the cells begin to grow and sprout thousands of cellular strands. In one to two weeks, the result is ready to be dried into a panel of insulation that can be used to keep a house warm in winter and cool in summer, or to protect a package during shipment.

Greensulate is fire retardant, and it's also unlikely to trigger mold and fungus allergies, by virtue of the drying process. And while its polystyrene counterparts take up landfill space indefinitely, Greensulate is highly compostable, enriching the soil surrounding it and even aiding the breakdown of other nearby waste. Current cost projections suggest Greensulate will retail at costs competitive with traditional foams, the company says.

Ecovative is still working on R&D and compliance with American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International standards and International Building Code. It will focus on material optimization and compliance testing throughout 2008, it says, with a commercially available insulation product targeted for mid-2009. The company is actively seeking strategic partners to aid in Greensulate's commercialization. One to get in on early?

Website: www.ecovativedesign.com
Contact: info@ecovativedesign.com

Spotted by: Michael Martin

We've written on a few different occasions already about upscale ice-cream trucks aimed at grown-ups (one in Los Angeles and one in the UK), and now New Yorkers are getting in on the mobile dessert action with a few different trucks that deliver high-end ice cream and baked confections.

The Treats Truck, for one, uses its two trucks—aptly named "Sugar" and "Dot"—to sell cookies, brownies and other baked goodies to customers on the streets of Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs. Favourite delectables on the company's trucks include the Oatmeal Jammy and the Cran Almond Crispy along with peanut butter sandwich cookies, caramel cream sandwich cookies, four kinds of chocolate brownies daily, frosted sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies and a rotating list of specials. All goodies are baked from natural ingredients at the Treats Truck's Brooklyn bakery.

The Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream Company, meanwhile, sells specially crafted ice cream from its truck, which serves the SOHO area each afternoon. Ginger, Giandujia and Red Currant are among the flavours Van Leeuwen makes using locally sourced, hormone-free milk and cream. The company uses only cups, straws, bowls and spoons made from renewable sources, and it donates one percent of its profits to Wildlife Direct.

Then there's Wafels & Dinges, aimed at serving "good things Belgian" from its roving truck throughout the city—not to mention DessertTruck, which serves up such delectables as chocolate bread pudding, goat cheese cheesecake and a dark chocolate mousse bombe. DessertTruck can be found seven days a week at St. Mark's place and 3rd Ave.

Besides allowing small, high-end confectioners to compete in a market that would otherwise involve prohibitively high rents, upscale dessert delivery trucks like these also provide a perfect opportunity for us to repeat our favourite refrain: everything can be upgraded! One to cause the Good Humor man concern in wealthy urban centers around the globe. ;-)

Website: www.treatstruck.com — www.vanleeuwenicecream.com — www.wafelsanddinges.com — www.desserttruck.com
Contact: info@treatstruck.com — ben@vanleeuwenicecream.com — info@wafelsanddinges.com — mail@desserttruck.com

Spotted by: Yael Miller

Parents have long had a multitude of websites to choose from for community and advice, but until recently little has been available to serve the needs of what SavvyAuntie calls "P.A.N.K.s"—professional aunts with no kids of their own. SavvyAuntie, which just launched into beta last week, aims to fill that gap with a parenting site aimed at non-parents.

Roughly half of American women today are not mothers, the site says, but they often have numerous nieces and nephews to dote on. New York-based SavvyAuntie.com helps such aunts connect and become savvier about kids, so they no longer have to rely on a mom or a parenting guide for advice. With sections devoted to expertise, activities, gifts and community, the site provides tools and information to help women who are aunties by relation or by choice—along with great aunts, godmothers and all women who love kids. Forums, groups, blogs, an Auntiepedia and other social tools are designed uniquely for aunties, as are the site's digital scrapbooks and a "digital fridge door" for kids’ artwork, both of which are coming soon. Savvy Auntie has also teamed up with Nickelodeon’s GoCityKids for information on restaurants, events and local activities suitable for visits with nieces and nephews in major cities throughout the US. As the site puts it, "SavvyAuntie.com gives Aunts a unique and modern approach to learn, connect, share and celebrate Aunt-hood." Membership on the ad-supported site is free.

With considerable wealth and influence over roughly 85 percent of their household purchasing decisions, according to SavvyAuntie, P.A.N.K.s are a group worth targeting as they indulge the kids in their lives—and themselves. The advertising possibilities are compelling, needless to say. And what about localized versions of this site in countries around the world? Time to start thinking seriously about aunts!

Website: www.savvyauntie.com
Contact: info@savvyauntie.com

Spotted by: Ozgur Alaz

Earlier this summer we wrote about Now Play It, a UK-based site that uses artist-led video instruction to teach music fans to play their favourite pop and rock songs. Now, focusing on a different niche, a similar site based in New York targets professional classical and jazz musicians with a wide range of expert-taught lessons.

Mucony offers video music lessons taught by some of the world’s finest classical and jazz artists. All the major instruments are represented, along with lessons in voice, history and theory, and teaching faculty hail from such prestigious institutions as the New York Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera orchestras. A lesson for pianists on Schumann's Canaval op .9, for example, spans 30 minutes, while baritones can learn about pronouncing vowels through a 27-minute lesson; pricing for each is USD 5. In the next few weeks Mucony plans to relaunch with a new format that adds a raft of community features as well, the site says. Included among them will be job listings, master classes, live performances, a forum, downloadable music for sale and lessons for beginners.

Making top-level instruction more widely accessible can only please musicians, and the upcoming addition of community elements promises to complete the picture. One to replicate in the other arts as well, or any place practitioners can benefit from the guidance of experts.

Website: www.mucony.com
Contact: cs@mucony.com

Spotted by: Steve Andreacchi