We're always pleased to see new schemes to involve the public in media publishing and the launch of 'Blottr' looked like another step forward. 

They promise news updated as it happens "by people on the street" and they invite you to "get involved and break news stories happening around you". So you might expect something with longer stories than Twitter, or a little more mobile friendly than previous citizen journalism projects. What I didn't expect was the same old agenda. 

From the content published on the site It seems the public are interested in reporting the same old local crime, minor disasters and PR releases that the mainstream media has been doing for 150 years. And they're doing it in the same style - as if the members of the public Blottr attracts are all wannabe junior hacks. Well, maybe a few people like that have seeded the site and it will all change when more get involved but at present Blottr doesn't add anything radically new from the streets. 

The real opportunity with open access publishing and low cost media content has always been the opportunity to change the agenda, support real democratic change through public participation in civil society and create new genres of media. That's the kind of thing going on in Youtube, Twitter and maybe Tumblr.

From the look of things so far Blottr's time came and went a few years ago. http://www.blottr.com/