Comments on: Citizenbay to pay local news contributors

By: Interview with Oleg Tscheltzoff of Citizenbay - Provider of Local Media « TechAddress

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 14:26:14 +0000

[...] We recently had the opportunity to speak with Oleg Tscheltzoff of Citizenbay, which is an online provider of local media. The site has an impressive list of features and is marked as having the potential of being an extremely successful site in a very short amount of time. We hope you enjoy the interview. You can find other articles about Citizenbay here. [...]

By: Rene Churchill

Rene Churchill — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 20:27:49 +0000

I have to agree with the Craig’s and other comments that are grumbling about not being able to get into the site that you are reviewing. I have a very limited amount of time to look over new websites and Citizenbay just blew the 5 minute chance they had.

I realize Marshall gets to beta test a lot of stuff that the rest of us don’t, but he should resist the urge to get the “scoop” on the rest of the bloggers out there and only talk about it with it’s open to everybody.

I’m irked with Citizenbay for not telling me more while my curiosity is perked and with TechCrunch for sending me on this waste of time. Ticking off the TechCrunch subscribers and targets of Citizenbay’s PR efforts is not a sign of a successful “buzz” campaign.

By: Stephan Tual - Terapad.com

Stephan Tual - Terapad.com — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 09:14:40 +0000

Is neo-Techie for real or is this some sort of strange performance art?

All his posts are usually irrelevant to the topic and comprise only of (amusing I must say) hyperbole along the lines of “in the future, our deepest thoughts and feelings will produce content for the web.”

By: Media-Blog » Vom Bürger-Journalismus zur Bürgerzeitung

Media-Blog » Vom Bürger-Journalismus zur Bürgerzeitung — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 08:52:08 +0000

[...] Citizenbay heisst das Modell aus den USA. Marshall Kirkpatrick von Techcrunch beschreibt das Business Modell wie folgt: “Contributors will be paid between $1 and $5 per original article voted by readers into the top ten each day for each city, users who submit articles they did not write will receive $1 each time a submission makes it into the daily top 10 for their city. It may not be professional journalism, but it could be a nice little chunk of change for top users. It beats some of the AdSense sharing schemes I’ve seen lately.” [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 23:59:46 +0000

Let’s see how the guys from digg will react to this website. Maybe, they will offer to pay money too….

By: Buzzze

Buzzze — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 12:25:11 +0000

From what i read , its from $1 to $5 per articles per city per day as long as you enter in the top 10 in the city. And it looks like seeds are also accepted for $1 (M: users who submit articles they did not write will receive $1 each time a submission makes it into the daily top 10 ). The question is what are the cities ? How many ? If there is lots of cities x 10 articles x $1 , it can end up being lots of mony to be made everyday for top submissions.

By: james

james — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 12:13:00 +0000

is it me or $5 a pittance for writing a story. I mean, if you were lucky enough to write one top headline a day, you’d be in for $100 a month. Which would be a good wage, if you lived in Africa. A wire charge would quite quickly eat it away.
It’s great to pursue an incentives model, but the incentives have to be appropriate against the effort.

By: Bronwen

Bronwen — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 02:59:41 +0000

We’ve done it already … in the most isolated city in the world. We don’t have huge money behind us yet and we still are developing our product, but those interested in this growing area should have a look at Perthnorg . We’re probably what everyone calls BETA, but decided against using that term.
My only hesitation towards the citizenbay model is that by having an automatic stream from another partner site it takes away some control from the human editors – the users of the site.
For the record, I am a former journalist but now a proud Cit J – citizen journalist.

By: Stephan Miller » Citizenbay Pays Every Day People for News

Stephan Miller » Citizenbay Pays Every Day People for News — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 23:40:05 +0000

[...] Citizenbay to pay local news contributors [...]

By: Tom Vendetta

Tom Vendetta — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 23:02:07 +0000

Whoa there fellow TC commenters. Lets stop all the whining. I can’t be a beta tester, you can’t be a beta tester, but Marshall can. We should be thanking him for actually offering an early look at what it will be.

By: Jon Atack

Jon Atack — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 22:23:32 +0000

Good project and ideas. Looking forward to hearing & seeing more.

By: lemon obrien

lemon obrien — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 22:03:59 +0000

please only review companies which allow public access…and have a product…otherwise…its some company spouting vapor…trying to get money b/c they’re going broke.

it also makes TechCrunch look amaturish

By: Hitwise: Topix Up, So Is Google « Screenwerk

Hitwise: Topix Up, So Is Google « Screenwerk — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 21:19:47 +0000

[...] Related: CitizenBay, user-generated local news, events, classifieds and video site will be launching soon. TechCrunch has more. [...]

By: Neotechie

Neotechie — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 21:16:30 +0000

In the future,

startups will race to end poverty instead of racing to accumulate and keeping wealth.

By: Neotechie

Neotechie — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 21:11:46 +0000

In the future, the web will be available everywhere.

In the future, our deepest thoughts and feelings will
will produce content for the web.

In the future, we will create income simply by logging onto the web.

In the future, the wealth of the web will be evenly distributed.

In the future, your comments will change the world (www).

ISHA

By: Marshall Kirkpatrick

Marshall Kirkpatrick — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 19:10:40 +0000

JC – an interesting discussion could be had for sure. The biggest thing I think of when I write things like that is that ubiquitous connectivity for many people means that the web isn’t just something you use at home – it’s a layer of information that can be laid over everywhere we go. Web reviews of off-line businesses in search results, for example, have the potential to make or break restaurants, auto mechanics, you name it. History, economic, geographic data – there’s so much place-based info that we could connect with and make use of. I was just talking with some friends last night about businesses uploading their own photos into Yahoo! local search. So much is possible as web use is increasingly integrated with the rest of our lives.

By: whatshisname

whatshisname — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 19:03:36 +0000

I love this idea. i can imagine some neighbor writing a crimewatch column for the neighbors, or someone else writing a real estate column.

Gather.com has a walled garden approach to paid citizen journalism. Seems to be working.

By: Southland.LA

Southland.LA — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 18:48:27 +0000

The real challenge here is getting sufficient content. Like the idea!

By: JC

JC — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 18:38:16 +0000

Marshall, could you be a little more specific about the “case for local information on the web”? MSN, YHOO, and GOOG are coming out with products that have clever mapping features, coupons, etc., but what problem do you feel they are solving and why is it relevant now? I don’t necessarily disagree, but I was curious as to what you specifically meant.

By: Craig McGinty

Craig McGinty — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 18:27:01 +0000

I think Craig has a very valid point there (and it’s not just because we share the same first name)!

I was up and ready to write about this site as I’m sure it would appeal to the audience who read my French site – but what can I actually write about?

Yes, I could link through to Techcrunch but still no one is going to be able to have a try of anything.

So unless I somehow cross Citizenbay again when it goes live they have missed the opportunity to promote their work.

A plea. If you are a start-up, even in beta mode, give us something to write about and to send interested people to so they can find out more.

By: Craig

Craig — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 18:04:30 +0000

Wow, a static landing page…