Background/ In the short history of the Internet, digital media have affected the revenue models of many major business sectors. Fundamentals of marketing and advertising have shifted without concern to anyone outside those industries, but there is deep fear that journalism itself is threatened.

While "a free press is a condition of a free society" [Justice Hugo Black, Associated Press v. United States, 326 U.S. 1, 20 (1945)], how does journalism survive when newspapers can no longer afford to pay reporters out of dwindling advertising revenues? User-generated content provides a deluge of zero-cost content, but of what quality?

Digital media have weakened the power and expertise that traditional media brands garnered from their print publications. Google News has changed the habits of web users as online audiences no longer consult the homepage of media brands. More and more in-depth reporting from the field is delivered by non-profits such as Human Rights Watch, with wide and well-implanted networks of researchers working directly in the countries. The 2008 U.S. election has been covered by bloggers such as Politico or The Huffington Post to great and positive response. Citizen journalists help raise awareness about hidden agendas by using their still or digital video cameras, competing with professional photojournalism. Community platforms have created and answered the need for interaction and ongoing conversations, and have captured a considerable audience.

What roles are left to professional media in news coverage, field reporting, criticism, and analysis? Will their pool of authors (columnists, reporters, writers, and others) be enough to preserve and anchor an audience? Should professional media become supra-curators instead, editing and packaging content produced by external sources? If so, what would be the resulting form of citizen journalism in exchange for content (credit, visibility, compensation)?

No organization currently integrates and rewards new forms of information-creating and information-seeking. Some corporate media have opted for brand protectionism rather than accepting new forms of journalism, with small channels for people to post content on breaking news. How realistic would it be to embrace citizen journalism as an enhanced ecosystem in order to complement and extend their existing assets with quality reporting?

Discussions of the issues and speculation around solutions abound, both in print and online. Aside from vague optimism and calls to experiment, no plan or convergent process has emerged. We believe this is because there is no clear foundation of shared understanding—that is, no clear map or model of the actors, events, interactions, objects, and payments that operate in the ecosystem in which journalism is embedded. Another possible reason no plan has emerged is that conversations have largely been segregated—"old media" publishing is talking to itself with old language and old models, while "new media" congratulates itself as being the new world solution but without demonstrating the discipline and quality expected of true journalistic processes.

There is currently no democratic form of active reflection about the funda-mentals of journalism and, by extension, what defines citizen journalism. We believe that by bringing together experts in concept visualization and web strategy, with visionaries in media and advertising, with engineers of databases that aggregate content, and finally with interaction designers building content display for non-linear storyboards, we could create that place, where experts can collaborate and the audience can question them.

That ecosystem-building and mediation will become a medium in itself. Taking the form of a concept map (information visualization), where short edited texts will be built into info-graphics for navigation and comprehension, the platform will be a lively organism with modules that allow the user/participant to interact by posing questions and offering viewpoints. With digital technology forever embedded in the social fabric, we must answer the question:

What are the rights and obligations, and the core mission, of digital media? Our platform could become the template for citizen journalism to flourish anywhere, using any capture and distribution medium, based on vetted charters and methodologies.

Our site aims to become a media reference itself, with quality, verified content, a dynamic database, user-friendly navigation, and deep engagement for participating users. The project will be directed by a small group of complementary experts, known as the Core Group, supported by educational non-profits and private entities.