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The first grassroots version of the GroundReport network
worked. Soon that initial network had spawned its own
offshoot networks centered on geographic regions. First
it was Turkey. Professionally trained journalists with
differing views sparred using words and images on the
GroundReport.com. I feared that people visiting the site
might think we were a Turkish news site. But the regional
focus ebbed and flowed, moving with world events.
When Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, GroundReport
hosted the greatest English-language coverage by
Pakistani locals in the media. GroundReport also swept
through Africa as journalists told their friends about the
website that pays you in American dollars for your work.
Slowly, all these microcommunities bonded together. We
launched GroundReport groups, and our most
passionate contributors created collaborative publications
across time zones and borders. We defined our mission
further, and the community responded. Mohan Nepali, a
frequent reporter from Kathmandu, emailed me this
morning, describing GroundReport as "a people's vehicle
for globalization." We cultivated content partnerships with
sources like Global Voices and the International War and
Peace Reporters, who fulfill the GroundReport duty of
reporting from the ground on the events of the world.
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GroundReport has witnessed the potential of grassroots
bootstrapping. Now, as our larger family grows, we will
focus on again creating small networks - micronetworks -
around the world, pockets of community that nurture
themselves before integrating into the cloth of
GroundReport. These micronetworks will be as
autonomous as possible, giving their members a sense of
real ownership and impact, and will focus on journalism
schools, nonprofits, regions and movements. We hope
to learn something from the achievements of community
organizing - a potent force in the United States - to apply
to our mission of democratizing the media.
We also must continue to nurture the network and protect
its integrity. One of the biggest mistakes in launching a
'crowdsourced' venture - an initiative that relies on the
wisdom and input of crowds - is to let it grow wildly out of
control. Like a young child, communities need guidance
and boundaries, even discipline, in order to work together
smoothly and create something of value.
In the beginning we built GroundReport.com and let
people do whatever they wanted - the result was a mess.
Spam, poems, press releases and unfinished sentences
clogged our pages. As we began to edit daily, to show
that the GroundReport network is a living, breathing thing,
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