The Bay(osphere) is sinking

From Dan Gillmor: A Letter to the Bayosphere Community. In this entry Dan explains why his vision for local media failed. Some people will lead off a remark with “I hate to say I told you so but…” Me, on the other hand, I have no problem with it. Although I wrote a mildly positive blog entry back in May with the public launch, I never quite understood how the company planned to attract the ‘citizen journalists’ it expected to provide the bulk of the site’s material. I never read of any incentives offered other than a free publishing platform, but there are plenty of those and most offer a good deal more functionality than Bayospere. Good try, worth doing, but I just don’t see evidence that Gillmor, his partners and backers ever thought this all the way through.