US: Citizen media project coming to an end?

Posted by John Burke on January 25, 2006 at 11:19 AM

Former tech columnist for the San Jose Mercury News and citizen journalism entrepreneur, Dan Gillmor, has written what appears to be a farewell to his start-up citizen media site, Bayosphere. Gillmor left the Merc a little over a year ago to put the finishing touches on his Internet venture dedicated to a range of subjects from technology to the Bay Area to politics. Unfortunately, it seems that Bayosphere didn't turn out as planned.

In an explicative posting, Gillmor discusses the planning in the run-up to the site's launch and continues right through to the lessons he has learned throughout its year-long existence.

One notable conclusion he reaches is that citizen journalism is here to stay, but that "... it's even more important to remember that publishing is about the audience in the end. Most people who come to the site are not participants. They're looking for the proverbial "clean, well-lighted place" where they can learn or be entertained, or both."

Now, Gillmor is off on another project, heading up the Center for Citizen Media, a non-profit joint venture with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkely. The Editors Weblog wishes Gillmor the best of luck with the Center for Citizen Media and congratulates him on his bold experiment with an emerging media phenomenon.

Source: Bayosphere, Center for Citizen Media

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