First, a quick note: If you post something here that's off topic -- like your poetic meditation on your dream state dalliance with the Dali Lama -- I'll yank it in a heartbeat.

Go create your own Group. This Group is about citizen journalism.

What does the term imply? A few things.

It's more than blogging. 99% of blogs are about personal reflections, rants, musings, insight, drivel. Everything under the sun.

To qualify as citizen journalism (and admittedly there's a lot of latitude in decidng whether something fits under the citizen journalism label), an assumption arises that what you're writing about, or taking video of, or recording audio of, or shooting photographs of, has some civic and community value. That it resonates beyond the "me" and extends into the "we."

It's harder to define than to point at, frankly. You might want to begin with the "We Media" whitepaper Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis wrote and I edited in 2002. And my series in OJR about citizen journalism and participatory media. Then move on to Dan Gillmor's "We the Media" book, and into examples of citizen journalism that are sprouting up all over.

The survivor of the London bombings who shot fellow passengers in the tube with his camera phone.

The people chronicling their communities through photographs and video at sites like Northwest Voice and New West and the Bluffton (S.C.) Today.

Sites like NowPublic.com and Bayareaistalking.com and IT Conversations and Blogcritics.org.

The most important point, though, is that any of us can do citizen journalism, on your personal blog or website, or elsewhere, without having to run a "citizen journalism" site. That's what this Group is here for: to encourage that kind of independent media creation.

I've been dabbling in video citizen journalism lately, lugging my camcorder around and capturing interesting people here. Would love to hear of similar examples.