Backfence acquires Bayosphere
Backfence Inc., which is building a network of hyperlocal citizens’ media community Web sites, is acquiring Bayosphere, a site cofounded by citizens’ media pioneer Dan Gillmor, and expanding to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Gillmor launched Bayosphere in June 2005 after leaving the San Jose Mercury News to pursue his citizen journalism passion and experiment with what business models might work. Since then, it has become a lively forum for debate on Bay Area issues, home for Gillmor’s popular blog on technology, and attracts close to 100,000 unique visitors per month. Gillmor announced in January that he was stepping away from fulltime participation in Bayosphere to concentrate on the Center for Citizen Media, a think-tank he founded in cooperation with Harvard University Law School and the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.
Gillmor’s blog on technology and Bay Area life will be featured on Backfence’s five new Bay Area community sites, the first of which will launch in Palo Alto in May. In the meantime, the existing Bayosphere site, which has become a popular destination for discussions about regional issues and technology news, will operate under the Backfence banner, and Gillmor’s blog will be available at www.backfence.com/bayarea beginning immediately.
Backfence launched its first sites in McLean and Reston, Va., in May 2005 and has since added sites in Bethesda, Md., and Arlington, Va. Consisting entirely of content contributed by readers, the sites provide hyperlocal news coverage of the communities, as well as event listings, reviews and ratings of local businesses, photo galleries, free classifieds and other services.
Backfence CEO Susan DeFife said Backfence chose to launch its first Bay Area hyperlocal site in Palo Alto because “it is the linchpin of Silicon Valley. Its broad collection of community organizations, strong business and commercial base, high Internet penetration and its population base are the kinds of things we look for in deciding where Backfence should open local sites. We’re looking forward to becoming an important part of the Palo Alto community and then launching additional sites in Bay Area communities over the next few months.”
Both Backfence and Bayosphere received funding from Omidyar Network, the mission-based investment group founded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar to foster social, political and economic self-empowerment. Bayosphere also received funding from technology entrepreneur Mitch Kapor.
Apr 17, 2006 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(0)
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