I created the The Blog Peoria Project to encourage neighborhood-based citizen journalism. And to some extent it has succeeded. But I was kinda hoping for more. I envisioned it as a network of blogs, but it’s mostly a locally-based free blogging service, with no more interaction between members than would exist between any group of bloggers.
Soon, the fine folks at Automattic will release something called BuddyPress, which will take an existing WordPress Multi User site like BPP and make it more of an interactive social network, with blogs as just one component. Features will include personal messages between members, member albums, friends lists, a front page that aggregates to member content, and more. A feature I’m excited aboutis one that allows members to form and administrate their own groups
Buddy Press (actually, a series of plugins) is still under development, and as soon as a stable version is out, I’ll upload them all.
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Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
