> where's the open source version of the news wire

Being built with Drupal, of course!

News projects in the works and various states of maturity...

http://public-press.org
http://coanews.org
http://spot.us
http://nowpublic.com
http://narcosphere.narconews.com
http://www.openmediaboston.org
http://vineyardvoice.org
http://www.prwatch.org
http://www.placeblogger.com
http://fastcompany.com

I know, nothing here replaces even a PR newswire yet. (Though PR newswires do not seem to have great distribution; a single technology review site listed on Google News would probably do better.) However, these sites and many others (even non-Drupal ones) are the start of an important, diverse, open news ecosystem. Furthermore, some people in it, and others on the sidelines like myself, are very interested in creating the technological infrastructure to scale a fair openness to millions of people-- "democratic moderation" that could allow global conversations, at sustainable volumes, without corporate gatekeepers. One more evil no longer necessary.

benjamin, Agaric Design Collective