Jeff Jarvis, who needs no introduction to this audience, provides a few more details on the much-discussed comment made by Craig Newmark in an article in the Guardian and then followed up in his blog. Reveals Jeff: "Craig invested in the news startup I’ve been working with, which I mentioned briefly back in May. He is one of our angel investors and advisor as an individual, not on behalf of Craigslist... Our goal is to create a platform to organize the world’s news using the best of technology, community, and editors. We see an explosion of interest in and coverage of news from incredibly varied sources around the world and see a need around that." Expect a beta launch in the spring of next year says Jeff.

Rick, in the comments, responds: "Like most people, I’m assuming that this means some sort of combination of social networking and automated news aggregation. Which certainly makes sense, and I suspect there’s a need for it...But I wish investors would put as much effort into the writing and reporting side of the equation. It’s relatively easy to grab some VC money by promising to aggregate news into some easy-to-consume product. But there seems to be little appetite for putting money into the editorial side of things..."

Steve Yelvington, a Corante Network contributor, in the same vein says journalism is more than filtering: "I'm reminded of something an old city editor used to say: It all starts with beat reporters. Shoes on the street. People who find hard facts, drag them (kicking and screaming if necessary) into public view, and -- using personal knowledge based on years of experience -- place those facts into a meaningful context."

He continues: "We're not lacking for filters, and the blogosphere is basically one big filter generator. Search filters, wingnut filters, leftie filters ... we got 'em... Where I fear for the future is in the reporting process. Information doesn't just happen..."

[Congrats to Steve are in order: as he notes here, he's been named one of three finalists for the Newspaper Association of America's Online Innovator Award.]