I just saw Dan’s post on his next steps, and his departure from Bayosphere for Berkeley’s new Center for Citizen Journalism. I’m excited for him. But I think Lea and Fleddy’s comments on his post are important. There’s more details in their comments – but the gist: “Hey Dan, What about Bayosphere?”

Bayosphere was started as a citizen journalist venture. Bayosphere denizens have invested in it and communicated through it, some occassionally, some frequently. Citizen journalism tries, among other things, to create a more bottom-up and granular system of reporting and accountability to the truth. The grassroots part of it implies to me that accountability to each other is valued more highly than accountability to the dictates of established, monolithic outlets for ‘truth’. Yes, currently we aren’t really community-owned and driven. But what drew me here was the vision of co-ownership. I also believed in the potential of the vision because of Dan, his track record, and what I perceived to be his commitment to shared process rather than shared endpoints. He was seeding the venture, and he embodied the principles I thought necessary for a grassroots journalism project. Read the rest of this entry »