Interesting article here from Paul Mason at the Guardian on social media: Why social media is like the railways – and must be saved | Opinion | The Guardian Only yesterday I read on TechCrunch that Medium was struggling with its business model, despite doubling its user base in the last 12 months. I've been getting into Medium because I prefer long form content, and am considering blogging there for my business due to the audience's profile. I write on Quora for the same reason, and enjoy - as you know - going deeper than social media usually allows. I've been getting so fed up of Facebook lately, with the newsfeed now stuffed with adverts; and did you know that only about 5% of your 'friends' (on average) will actually see what you post on your FB account? He points out that VC-backed internet startup world defines success as the creation of a monopolistic dominant player in a market (which regulators would not allow for any bank or retail chain). This drives the mass market focus and economics of these platforms, particularly given that web consumers are well-known for their preference and expectation that everything should be free. The Guardian also struggle with their business model for this reason, resisting the paywall option. Mason makes a plea for consumers to vote with their feet, and turn their backs on the shallow content and commercialism that dominates the big platforms. He wants us to support the alternative platforms, the underdogs of the web. Is he delusional and idealistic in the extreme in this call to action? Are we all too lazy, sleep-walking into a future that we don't really want as consumers? Or are you with Peter Thiel on this one?
personally i would rather trust a crowd funder than a daily rabble rouser. one that can provide suitable evidence of a credible nature. that doesn't have financial gain on an "opinion piece" its trying to push. democracy based on lies aint no democracy.
Sorry, just read my post and realised it's jam-packed with jargon and acronyms from the online marketing and web business world, so only makes sense if you live and breathe that world! But your answer captures my own sentiment perfectly! If I have time later I will edit the post and make it readable!
Agree. Crowd funding is one of the best innovations to emerge in the internet world. And the block chain technology behind bitcoin looks promising too.
got a mate through in edinbro developing block chain programs and bit coin. stuart fraser Scottish Blockchain Meetup – Wallet.Services, Deloitte & Cloudsoft Corporation | MBN
It has huge potential to disrupt a lot of fields, from law to recruitment to medicine... but the risks of getting it wrong are so huge, it's uptake is (rightly) taking time. Good for your mate though: the future looks bright for this tech, even if it's a long game.
Ok. It's a con for gullible people to put a few quid in a pot, like small change, so no one worries whether it comes off or not.
In a capitalistic system, all businesses strive toward establishing and exploiting a monopoly position if they can manage it. They always have done so, and this is not new or unique to internet companies. Historically after a few years or decades it gradually dawns on people that the growing private monopolies are a bad thing, so parliaments pass laws and governments take action to break them up, or introduce new players, or take them into public ownership. I guess it will be a few years yet before this stage is reached in the digital world.
The issue with crowdfunding is what is referred to as the "exit", once your money is in you have effectively lost control of it until the company folds, when you lose your investment, or the company is sold or floats in which case you might get some, or a great deal more, back. It is high risk but if you want to play at Dragon's Den, and have money you are prepared to lose, I suppose it could be fun. Or you could just go into your local bookies
I have posted this in another thread https://www.amazon.co.uk/Circle-Dave-Eggers/dp/024114650X The Circle, all encompassing and all knowing, secrets are theft.
