UK - BBC to clone blogs

That's what this sounds like.

* Between 10 and 20 volunteers are being recruited across the city.
* Through workshops, participants will be guided through the BBC’s editorial guidelines and production values and then referred to commercial blogging platforms to start their own sites.
* The BBC will monitor RSS feeds from these blogs and highlight the best content.
* Pre-existing local bloggers/Flickr contributors are also invited to submit work or tag content “bbcmanchesterblog” so it can be picked up.
…As for the workload, Hamman optimistically envisages this as a one or two hour job each day for BBC staff — skimming the RSS feeds and wrapping editorial around the best.

The rest of the task is to promote the blog to BBC journalists as an efficient source of content about Manchester.

Since the "participants will be guided through the BBC’s editorial guidelines and production values" are these really personal blogs anymore, or, are they just BBC clones to spread the BBC's propaganda? Just listen.

So what are they doing? They are creating a Space where they will have a Host.

The Host will select what goes into the space. Really a new kind of editor - see the link to the old?

So who are the contributors? They have gone into the local community (This is regional BBC) and found the best bloggers. They have met with them several times. Beer has been drunk. They have an offer for them. If they want to be picked up in this space by the host, they have access to a wide range of training - first of all about what is the BBC way for journalism ethics etc and secondly they offer all sorts of technical training. If you want to make a better video - we will help you etc.

All keep their own blogs but offer an RSS feed. There is a static hosted BBC site that filters this content.

"the BBC way for journalism ethics"???? You mean like BBC lying, bias and spin?

The BBC knows it can't beat the bloggers so might as well assimilate them. Come to think of it, have you ever seen the BBC and the Borg in the same place at the same time?