Dan Gillmor: New Year, New Blog
With the new year comes new information on what life after the Merc looks like for Dan Gillmor. Today he introduced a new personal blog focused on grassroots journalism (subscribe here).
While the foundation of Gillmor’s new endeavor appears to still be taking shape, I think it’s safe to assume this new blog will become a great source for discussing and really understanding how the media landscape is evolving.
This project is still very much in an embryonic state, however. I have
to emphasize that point, because some of the online chatter and
speculation has raised absurdly high expectations, certainly in the
short term. I have many ideas, including some quite specific ones, but
the larger framework has yet to be developed, much less built.
In the longer term, who can say? But I do know one thing: If
anything worthwhile comes of this, and I strongly believe it will, the
achievements will be ours, not mine. They will be the result of many
people’s ideas, good will and effort. If I can help clear a path for
people who want to join the vast, global conversation, I’ll be happy.
For the immediate future I plan to use this blog to ponder the
present and future of grassroots journalism; to begin to figure out
what we might do together in this new world; and, in general, to have
the kind of conversation that this huge topic requires.
Of course, I’m far from the only person who’s thinking and
talking about this stuff. I’ll point you to the best work I see, and
count on you to let me know when I miss something important.
Update: Gillmor’s farewell column in today’s paper.
Our conversation — which I hope we’ll
continue as my new project gets under way — has been a constant source
of inspiration. If it’s meant something to you, that pleases me more
than I can say. Thank you all.
