Will a citizen photo site still work?

Back at the beginning of May,Kyle MacRae once of Scoopt gave an excellent talk on his business model of a citizen photo agency,a concept which ultimately failed.

The general consensus around the room was that was overtaken by events,the soaring popularity of Flickr etc and the model which he had come with simply couldn't compete.

It is interesting then that Demotix who launched a similar scheme last year are basking in the rays of glory after their site sold front-page pictures to the New York Times taken by Iranians who captured shots of protests after the disputed presidential election in Iran.

They also had the only photo of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. in handcuffs more recently.

So can they prosper where Scoopt failed?

At Mediashift, Mark Glaser,asked Kyle for his comments

I'd say their chances of acquiring significant volumes of content with commercial value -- where value is largely driven by timeliness -- are slim to zero,It's hard to get sufficient awareness to stand even the remotest chance that the next punter to witness a newsworthy incident will have heard of Demotix, and know how to submit a photo or video quickly...Demotix (or Scoopt in its day, or any similar site) will always score well when they get a big hit -- but otherwise?"

and Mark's conclusion?

Demotix will have to move beyond being a destination site for citizen photos and put itself where amateurs will be taking the shots and uploading them.