Howard Rheingold attended a Jurgen Habermas lecture recently and walked away very disappointed. For the uninitiated Habermas’s concept of the public sphere is part of the philosophical underpinnings of the public journalism movement. Habermas also deeply affected Rheingold, who writes in his blog post:
When I wrote The Virtual Community in 1992, the most important question to me [...]
As you might know, the Harnisch Foundation under the direction of Ruth Ann Harnisch gave us a substantial gift to start the Center for for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University. We are up and running. Keep abreast of what is happening at SustainableJournalism.org 
Leonard Witt is the Robert D. Fowler Distinguished Chair in Communication at Kennesaw State University and the chief blogger of PJNet. His academic interests include public and citizen journalism and how to get citizens' voices heard. He has spent most of his professional career as an award-winning journalist.