Mission: To provide a how-to guide for hyper-local community media.

Background:
J-Learning.org — a digital handbook and Web site for designing, launching, and sustaining an online community news site — was launched by J-Lab - The Institute for Interactive Journalism at the University of Maryland in August 2005 to support J-Lab's New Voices project, which is offering micro-grants to twenty community-news start-ups through 2006. J-Learning also serves small-market news organizations seeking to add more online news, and journalism programs teaching new media skills. A grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation supports both initiatives, which are administered by J-Lab.

Outstanding Web Features:
The J-Learning Web site contains twenty chapters and more than sixty subsections of basic-skills training that cover how to plan, build, present, and promote a site. Topics include choosing a domain name and Web host, buying hardware and software, as well as basic HTML and page design. J-Learning also offers tips on selling advertising and legal issues, as well as discussion forums and examples of tutorials and helpful hints from community journalism sites.