The UK has huge potential for successful citizen journalism business models that could be exploited by traditional media, according to US grassroots guru Dan Gillmor.

Speaking by video link from Doha to the UCLAN Journalism Leaders' Forum in Preston last night, Mr Gillmor said that the UK industry is in a unique position because of its dedicated audiences.

"There is an enormous opportunity for regional news organisations," he said.

"The current audiences are an unparralled opportunity to dive into this and to invite those audiences to be part of the journalism and add their own work.

"No-one else has that competitive advantage going into this process. Traditional media could still exploit this before the entrepreneurs."

He admitted that exploring these business models would be 'messy' and that many of those would fail. Last week he announced that his own Bayosphere citizen journalism project had stalled.

"But it's not about any one person or group doing this - it's about all of us exploring together, discussing what we find and figuring out how it works."

Learning from failure

Dan Gillmor posted a detailed explanation of the problems on the Bayosphere blog last week. He explained that there were not enough participants and not enough response to new initiatives on the site, and put this down to his failure to provide direction or an adequate framework for users.

He also said that the Bayosphere's 'pledge' to encourage fairness, accuracy and transparency had been proven to be useful and suggested that the quality of comments can be increased by asking contributors for their real names.

Mike Ward, head of journalism at UCLAN, said that Mr Gillmor's openness about the project's problems was in the spirit of the learning process.

"In giving such visibility to a full response he is giving himself and others insight into how to continue this iterative learning process," he said.

"We should be nervous about people who are looking for definite positions. We need to recognise this is about a journey rather than a fixed destination."

Handholding

BBC News Interactive head Pete Clifton said that he was not surprised that the project had failed but that Dan Gillmor's work had been trailblazing.

"I think we can expect too much from people - they do need handholding," he said.

"The people that want to consume this will not be the people that want to write it."

Mr Gillmor explained his vision of the future media space as one where professionals and citizens both contribute in many ways.

"The media is monolithic in some places. It can't be as diverse as the population but the more voices the better," he said.

"I'm looking for a more diverse, vibrant ecosystem with many different life forms. Professionals will be maintaining the good work they do but will be augmented by this wonderful new form of work."

"Is citizen journalism a threat or an opportunity?" asked Dan Gillmor.

"The answer has to be yes..."

• A webcast of the session is available at http://breeze01.uclan.ac.uk/p55228203/.

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