When someone of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar's stature decides to launch a news service in our backyard and hires a top-notch editor to run it, there's reason for us to take special notice.

What Omidyar and newly hired John Temple, former editor, president and publisher of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, have in mind isn't exactly clear, even after a Jan. 21 press conference with local and national media.

Understandly, they aren't sharing their business model or staffing plans for an online news service in Hawai'i called Peer News, scheduled to launch during the second quarter of this year. But the little they did reveal is intriguing.

First, they plan to heavily utilize social media in their news operation. That makes sense in that there has been an explosion in those using social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

"The insight we had early on was that a large majority of people actually get their news through social connections rather than traditional news outlets," said Omidyar, who moved to Honolulu in 2006. "It's very clear to see that social media is the primary way for the lot of people to be informed about the world and their communities. That's a key part of our strategy."

Second, the emphasis will be civic and public affairs with many avenues for discussion and dialogue in an online forum.

"I think our primary objective will be to deliver real value to consumers, to help them understand what's going on in our community and to debate and engage in civil conversations around the issues," Omidyar said.

Temple said the staff's mission will be on "authoritative beat coverage in critical areas" and enterprise and analysis, although breaking news (via Twitter) may sometimes be included in the mix. Though considered a local Web site, Peer News will not include neighborhood news or sports coverage. That makes sense since the staff will be fairly small, probably less than a dozen or so.

Unlike ProPublica, an independent nonprofit investigative news service, Omidyar said he's interested in making money on this venture and judging from his for-profit investments in the Ulupono Initiative, which specializes in waste reduction, local food production and renewable energy, Omidyar will not simply sink money into something that cannot offer a return on investment.

"I'm committed to demonstrating with Peer News that a for-profit sustainable business operation can be an integral part of a community and can help people and meet aspirations in the community to make our home a better place."

What Peer News becomes remains to be seen but given his track record in technology, philanthropy and social causes, Omidyar is a competitor worth watching closely.