This post by Bobbie Johnson, technology correspondent for the Guardian, brought my attention to a new venture - yet to launch - that is bang on the mark, given all my previous posts on new technology's impact on journalism and traditional media. It's called NewAssignment.net, it's the brainchild of Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at New York University, and it could herald a new approach to networked journalism. 

The idea is that savvy visitors to the website suggest story ideas. The most popular ideas are then taken up by a group of editors, who gather the resources and commission professional writers to complete the article. The resulting stories will be published online, and could even be syndicated by the wider press. As Rosen puts it: "Reporter + smart mob + editor with a fund get the story the press pack wouldn’t, couldn’t or didn’t."

Interestingly, the site uses open source methods to develop good assignments and help bring them to completion. Unlike blogging, the level of professionalism is supposed to be guaranteed. The ultimate aim is this will be the place where talented citizen journalists and professionals converge.

At the moment, the business model seems to rely soley on donations. There are some notable backers - including Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, MediaGuardian columnist and man behind the BuzzMachine blog Jeff Jarvis, and former Silicon Valley journalist and noted technology writer Dan Gillmor. For further reading, ZDNet ran an interview with Newmark on this investment.

It will be interesting to see whether this venture takes off or fails. Where it could fall down is it's bold aim to do "stories the regular news media doesn't do, can't do, wouldn't do, or already screwed up". This raises the question, how can those people funding reportage agree on one correct version? Instead, we'll end up with the democratisation of reality - something that true journalism is supposed to cut through.