You wrote, “Decentralized is messier but I believe it is ultimately the way things will work because it is truly about local control:…”

I think you’re absolutely correct about local control being essential. I’m not so much worried about the messiness but the feeling of ownership by those contributing is essential.

The problem with local control is that the entreprenueral types with the vision just don’t have the financial resources of a chain newspaper or multinational media corporation.

As entreprenuers with media backgrounds are the most likely to launch such a venture, they are also likely to adopt an advertising model. This puts them in direct competition with not only the newspaper, but the shoppers and other media all going after the somewhat unsophisticated small business market in most trade areas. My experience with local newspapers is they do sense my site as a competitor and any mention in the paper is rare.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that the small business market itself is under stress. In most US markets in post Wal-Mart America, you’re also dealing with anemic and struggling local retail segments. Instead, with chain restaurants and retailers dominating most local markets, the cost of selling advertising to marketing managers in distant states is prohibitive; assuming they have an interest in buying a hyper-local market at all.

You go on to write: “hyperlocal needs TLC in some form: functionality, content, promotion, ad sales, something. What’s the right mix? Haven’t the faintest.”

If I could juggle ad sales in with the other demands, I might just be close to the right mix.

Pardon me while I crow a bit. My site, Paulding.com, will become a big-board (one of those local message boards) this week when our 6200+ members post their half-millionth post since the site’s launch in August 2003.

This was done in what is arguably the poorest (smallest commercial tax digest percentagewise), youngest (average age), smallest (just over 100,000 population) and least well educated (smallest percentage college graduate) county in the Atlanta metro area.

Karl: A writer never minds being quoted (accurately of course.) I’ve been writing and circulating my thoughts for 20 years and I have yet to cry foul that so and so “took” my idea. To me that’s the whole point: take, take…

Which reminds me: Jeff, please don’t refer to your own writing as “blathering,” and if it’s truly blathering then don’t post it.

Slashdot opened before Indymedia, but not by much (a couple years?).

Indymedia - as well as Slashdot - should be part of any citizen journalism discussion. I realize they are different kinds of communities, as Jay said in a related thread - a community of interest, versus one of a community grounded in place (hope you didn’t mind me quoting you Jay) - but there are enough similarities to warrant discussion. The editorial flow/moderation systems/content management systems of many of our efforts are very similar. Note I say “our” since I feel we are birds of a feather here, despite differences.

I think there is a lot to learn from Indymedia and Slashdot.

I know that Indymedia is an ancient dinosaur when compared to the hot hyperlocal phenomenon, and I also admit that its had its fair share of problems. Then again, its an agressively local news service almost entirely volunteer driven that actually does some real “reporting.” Isn’t this what hyperlocal journalism is all about?

Chris Anderson
PhD Candidate, Columbia University
Graduate School of Journalism
NYC Indymedia Volunteer

Jay Rosen summed up up our approach better than I could have (hope he doesn’t mind me quoting him):

Karl’s Philly Future is more or less the model Jeff Jarvis says is needed. Let “content creation” stay at the edges, which means let it remain embedded in individual lives, self-driven, entreprenurial, quirky, with the personal authority Daniel Conover has been writing about on these boards.

Jarvis says “it’s hard to convince people to contribute content to me when they can now control content on their own.” Real innovation will never come by expecting people to make good stuff for your site.

Our volunteer team acts as newsgathers in a fashion that Jeff decribed in an earlier buzzmachine piece - which was a great read since it confirmed our approach was on the right track. They write new content when we find it missing in the community - but the main goal is to find what’s here and bring it to the fore.