The big digital news of today: Spot.us launches

Just in case you haven't seen it yet, the non-profit Spot.us launched this week - the very definition of civic journalism.

Brought to you by David Cohn, a.k.a "DigiDave," he describes the idea behind it this way:

"Journalism is a process not a product, but that process takes time and people who do it professionally need to be compensated. The process of journalism should be participatory - and perhaps one way it can be made participatory is if the public has the opportunity to commission the journalism they want to see."

It's journalism that doesn't demand 30 percent profit margins or big advertising budgets.

Spot.us was funded by the Knight News Challenge.

David has been an inspiration as we've watched him put this together and followed him on Twitter and other social networking sites.

As journalism faces new challenges and some even question its future, Spot.us is a reminder that there's more than one way to report a story - and more than one way to deliver it.

We wish DigiDave and Spot.us all the best, and it's a site all professional journalists should be watching.