Margaret Simons, freelance journo who writes for Crikey, has asked the Sydney Freelance Journalists Group to pass on the details of two upcoming projects for the Public Interest Journalism Foundation.

The Public Interest Journalism Foundation, established at Melbourne’s Swinburne University of Technology, explores positive uses of new technology for journalism that matters.

The first project – YouCommNews – is within weeks of launching. It will be an audience-driven commissioning mechanism that will allow a direct relationship between audiences and journalists, without the necessary intervention of Big Media – although there is no reason why traditional media organisations can’t be part of the experiment, and the PIJF hope they will.

The YouCommNews website will allow members of the community and journalists to pitch stories they would like to see investigated, and to “crowd source” the funds to allow the journalism to be done. To learn more scroll down to the relevant post on Margaret’s blog

The second project is new – a two day conference, New News 2010, to be held as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival on 2 and 3 September this year.

There are some very interesting, top notch freelancers involved with the PIJF, so take a look at what they are up to and get involved.

You can read more about the PIJ foundation here.