Collective Wisdom on the Backfence-Bayosphere Acquisition

There's been a lot of interesting press today about the acquisition of Bayosphere by Backfence. (Disclosure note: Omidyar Network is a co-investor in both firms, and I serve on the board of Backfence.) It's been amazing to watch the landscape for participatory media evolve, and I've enjoyed the ground-floor access to communities trying out different models for interaction. Citizen's media, bottom-up content, user-generated content, participatory media...whatever you choose to label it, it's exciting and transformative.

Since I'm tracking so much public discussion anyway, I thought it would be interesting to share the reviews and commentaries that have crossed my desk. The gist of these posts? Participatory media is a good idea. People like being included. And ownership by the community is vital. Today's dialogue alone has been a terrific learning experience.

Here's what I have so far, and I'll add more to the list as they come up. I didn't include posts that pulled straight from the press release without adding commentary. Judge the collected pros and cons for yourself:

• Business Week's Blogspotting: Backfence Acquires Bayosphere
• Business Week's Podcasts: Hyperlocal Platform [AUDIO]
• Business Week's The Tech Beat: Backfence Buys Bayosphere
• Content Bridges: Welcome Backfence to the Bay Area
• Dan Gillmor: Welcome to Backfence
• GoffSpot: Backfence buys Bayosphere in move west
• KRON 4's The Bay Area is Talking: Dan Gillmor takes Backfence
• Mathew Ingram:  Bayosphere becomes part of Backfence
• The Mercury News: Community Web-site start-up comes to Bay Area
• paidContent.org: Dan Gillmor's Bayosphere: Backing, High Profile Doesn't Guarantee Success
• Poynter Online: Bayosphere Becomes Backfence
• Red Herring: Citizen Journalism Site Sold
• Screenwerk: Backfence Enters Bay Area with Bayosphere Acquisition
• SFist: Backfence Moves Into Our Backyard
• Silicon Valley Watcher: Dan Gillmor's citizen media project acquired by Backfence
• SiliconBeat: Backfence picks up Gillmor's blog, and expands into SF Bay Area
• Surfette: Can Backfence as a hyperlocal Bayosphere patch Silicon Valley's community newshole?
• Susan Mernit's Blog: Will wonders never cease: Backfence buys Bayosphere
• Valleywag: Backfence buys Bayosphere, SF crushed under weight of citizen journalists
• Yelvington.com:  Backfence goes west, picks up Bayosphere

Enjoy, and please do join one of these dialogues. That is the whole point, after all...

Tags: christine herron christine.net space jockeys bayosphere backfence media technology citizen journalism community

Comments

[Christine]

...as evidenced by the abundant coverage given to these two small startups! ;)

[Mathew Ingram]

Thanks for the link, Christine. You've got some other great ones on the topic too -- you even found a few I didn't :-)

As a journalist with a foot in both "old" and "new" media, I too am fascinated by the transformation that journalism is going through thanks to the Web, and all the different models that are out there (like Backfence, but also Newsvine and Gather and Digg and so on). It's an interesting time, to say the least.

Mathew