"Enterprise reporting goes pro-am. Assignments are open sourced. They begin online. Reporters working with smart users and blogging editors get the story the pack wouldn’t, couldn’t or didn’t," Rosen states on the web site. "They raise the money too. Q and A explains. There's $10,000 to test it, courtesy of Craig Newmark."

While NewAssignment is still just an idea, the blogosphere is already buzzing about it.

"I think this is an important experiment in pro-am, publicly supported, open journalism," said Jeff Jarvis in a recent post. " We must explore new business models to support coverage of news and this is one of them. I’m an enthusiastic supporter of NewAssignment and I look forward to working with Jay and you on it and learning a lot along the way."

I'm also excited to see where this idea goes. Bloggers are an important, and almost always, unrecognized group. By giving them the power and the tools to get the important stories out to the greater public, I can see only good things for the future of "the press." I'll be looking forward to see where these stories end up and how traditional media outlets embrace them.