Heather Green's got a BizWeek article on ex-journo and thinker Dan Gillmor, his 2005 Bayosphere community blogging/citizen journalism start-up, and his 2006 shift to exploring similar interests in an academic mode, as a professor and head of a citizen journalism non profit.
Heather's article gets into the too little, too late scenarios and the it was never really a community to explain why Bayosphere failed to flourist; she also highlights some other local endeavors that have grown into community resources and compelling destinations.
It's worth noting that althugh the article's critical of Dan, it also acknowledges what new ground citizen journalism is and how tactics to trigger critical mass are fairly undocumented.

A must read for online news watchers.