Tomorrow there is a Guardian event about the Web. Alan Rusbridger will
be there but I wonder if he will explain what the Guardian is trying
to do and how readers could support this? My impression is that he
still has no real acceptance of citizen journalism as associated with
OhmyNews. Here is a quote for a lecture earlier this year about issues
raised by the current situation-.

"The second issue it raises is the one of 'authority' versus
'involvement'. Or, more crudely, 'Us versus Them'. Again, this is
similar to the other two forks in the road, but not quite the same.
Here the tension is between a world in which journalists considered
themselves – and were perhaps considered by others – special figures
of authority. We had the information and the access; you didn't. You
trusted us filter news and information and to prioritise it – and to
pass it on accurately, fairly, readably and quickly. That state of
affairs is now in tension with a world in which many (but not all)
readers want to have the ability to make their own judgments; express
their own priorities; create their own content; articulate their own
views; learn from peers as much as from traditional sources of
authority. Journalists may remain one source of authority, but people
may also be less interested to receive journalism in an inert context
– ie which can't be responded to, challenged, or knitted in with other
sources. It intersects with the pay question in an obvious way: does
our journalism carry sufficient authority for people to pay – both
online (where it competes in an open market of information) and
print?"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jan/25/cudlipp-lecture-alan-rusbridger

It is still the case that Guardian Talk is rarely mentioned in print
and Guardian staff never join in. The site has been going a long time
and there is some useful stuff there even though most of it has been
deleted.

"Would you trust a citizen brain surgeon?" This was a common refrain
in 2005, as the news industry grappled with citizen journalism and the
implications of a new technologically empowered public
Jemima Kiss and Heather Christie
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jun/14/citizen-journalism-hyperlocal-news

well ho ho ho bring back the funny take on citizen journalism to the
Guardian media pages. Really nothing has changed since 2005 in how
citizen journalism is reported.

Meanwhile I fear the English version of OhmyNews may be short on
resources. The updates are taking longer. Not sure how this will
develop. I will continue sending them stories but not as often. Local
stuff from Exeter could relate to OhmyNews stories from the past five
years or so. The implications of bandwidth only clarify as bandwidth
is evident. The UK is still a few waymarks adrift.

Some mix and match could get somewhere new.