Pied Piper of Citizen Journalism

In the latest issue of Commonwealth magazine, media critic Dan Kennedy has a profile of Dan Gillmor, former technology reporter and the San Jose Mercury News and now head of the Center for Citizen Media at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. A snippet:

Gillmor sketches out a scenario whereby journalists and citizens would work together every step of the way, from pre-publication to well beyond. At the beginning, a reporter—instead of relying entirely on a Rolodex that may or may not lead him to the right sources—might post a message on his blog or on his news organization’s Web site. “Say, ‘Here’s what I’m working on,’ in a very public way,” says Gillmor. “And then, ‘Who should I talk to?’” After publication, Gillmor says, the reporter could keep revising his story as new information becomes available. Ideally, this would be done in a way that would allow readers to see precisely what was changed, deleted, and added over time.