We’ve had to remain largely mum on the Future of News and Civic Media Conference, just held this week here at MIT–such is the reality of a popular-but-invitation-only conference and one whose big news, the announcement of the 2009 Knight News Challenge winners, was embargoed until the last minute.

But I’d like to use this here website that I manage to thank the 200+ attendees, especially those from the Knight Foundation, for an amazing three days of barcamps, camaraderie, invention, and, of course, prize-giving.

Here, assembled, is but a slice of news about the conference.

The winners: http://www.newschallenge.org/winners/2009
The attendees: http://civic.mit.edu/knightconf/attendees
Photos by Knight’s Kristen Taylor of new Challenge winners…

…and past Challenge winners Dharmishta Rood, Chris Csikszentmihályi, and Mitch Resnick:

A great set of photos from Pete Karl—including an illustration of our Center’s new rule of thumb, the “Csik rule”: the formality of the occasion is inversely proportional to the neckline of Chris’ shirt:

The Journalism Now podcast about the 2009 winners: http://cmir.jou.ufl.edu/newsroom/podcast/episode-19-knight-news-challeng…
The official Twitter conversation: http://twitter.com/#search?q=knc09
News coverage from Editor and Publisher: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_con… and from the Boston Globe: http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2009/06/knight_foundati.html

Lastly, the conference marked the final event for outgoing C4FCM Research Director Ellen Hume, whom we’re sad to lose but whom we wish the all the luck in her move to Budapest. Be sure to catch her farewell post.

Thanks again to everyone who attended, to the dozens of people who demo’d their projects, to the Knight Foundation for making it possible, and to Sarah Wolozin, Brad Seawell, Taya Leary, Stephanie Gayle, and Daniel Hernandez for keeping the chaos as invisible as possible.