Some of the citizen journalists who have been posting at Dan Gillmor’s Bayosphere site for the past year are wondering what will happen to the site–and their involvement–now that Gillmor’s moving into a series of academic appointments and a new nonprofit.
Mimi Kahlon writes:”…Dan, your leaving us in the dark about the future of this venture, as you move on your next one, seems directly opposed to some core principles of process that I thought were an essential part of Bayosphere – commitment and accountability to the community that Bayosphere has invited and encouraged. Sure, people can (and do) come and go from Bayosphere, and when the community is fully ‘bottom up’, we might expect that to happen without fanfared farewells. We’re not at that stage yet, and the venture still has Dan’s strong imprint. Given that, it’s not responsible, Dan, for you to quietly walk away without giving us a sense of what’s going to happen to the project that we’ve all invested in.”
Other posters wonder what’s happening with the tools, blog links, and support services.
While there are some cynical comments-and probing questions–being published, the bottom line here might be translated as ‘What happens to community when the funding runs out/moves on?”
I imagine there will be clarification once the holidays are done…meanwhile, there’s a lot of interesting detail if you follow these links.