Bayosphere, Backfence and fostering community

Dan Gillmor's Bayosphere is now a part of Backfence.

Here's Dan's explanation.

Here's some short coverage by E&P.

I know, like and respect Mark and Susan over at Backfence, so it'll be fun to see where this goes. I'm not yet a firm believer in the idea of a network of hyper-local news sites as a business model, but it's still early in the game, and if anyone can make this work, these folks can.

Meantime, Kevin Anderson has this over at Corante: The challenge of fostering community.

The programme I work on at the BBC, World Have Your Say, launched its blog now just about a month ago. ... How do I help foster a sense of community using this blog wed to a radio programme with millions of listeners around the world?