A day-long public forum on Monday, Sept. 8, will attempt to answer the following question:

“Are Silicon Valley citizens getting the information they need in order to solve community problems, coordinate civic activity, maintain public accountability, and foster the human connectedness that is the backbone of both community and democracy?”

Gee, sounds like all the things newspapers used to do, back in the day.

The forum, held at Google’s headquarters at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, is being put on by the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy (www.knightcomm.org), a project of the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

Roundtable discusssions will include these panelists:

• Jim Bettinger, director, John S. Knight Fellowships for Professional Journalists, Stanford
• Chava Bustamante, staff coordinator, SEIU Local 1877
• Emmett Carson, chief executive and president, Community Foundation of Silicon Valley
• Muhammed Chaudhry, president and chief executive, Silicon Valley Education Foundation
• Linjun Fan, Albany Today blog
• Matt Hammer, executive director, People Acting in Community Together
• Raj Jayadev, founder, Silicon Valley De-Bug
• Mike McGuire, research vp, Gartner
• Chris O’Brien, project manager, The Next Newsroom Project, economics reporter and columnist, Mercury News
• Kim Walesh, chief strategist, city of San Jose

Here’s a link to a five-minute video about the forum, background on the Knight Commission and a way to register via e-mail.