Local Digital Social Networks
Strategic philanthropy has more difficulty funding bona fide organizers who are embedded in and responsive to the communities they serve. In contrast to their support for outspoken moral activists, philanthropic funders cannot meaningfully predict in advance what particular issue(s) grassroots organizers and their communities will prioritize. That... See more
In the 1970s and 1980s, the philosopher of technology Langdon Winner dismantled the idea that technology is a “neutral” tool (Winner, 1978). Winner’s work emphasized how those developing technology benefit the most while already disadvantaged individuals and groups pay the highest price, laying the philosophical foundation for subsequent work in... See more
In a model, agents are interchangeable. Consumer A and Consumer B have different preference curves, yes, but they respond to the same incentive structures in predictable ways. Community is what you get when agents stop being interchangeable to each other. When Alice doesn't need "a neighbour" but needs that neighbour, the one who watched her kids... See more
Just a moment...
Communities are Not Fungible
Just as important, they wanted information that was directly relevant to their lives and reflective of their communities. They were not interested in paying for a bundle of content that felt distant from their daily concerns. If local news is to earn financial support, it must first demonstrate local value.
In short, they wanted consistent, reliable... See more
In short, they wanted consistent, reliable... See more
Article
Preference for small, comprehensible businesses; valuing craftsmanship, limits, anti-optimization, and the philosophy of “enough.”
TRANSCRIPT
I feel like they're more real. I like real things, for whatever that means. Define it however you'd like. But a billion-dollar business or a ten-billion-dollar business, just it doesn't feel like a real thing to me. It feels like a concept.
Meanwhile, the dry cleaner down the street, I can drop off my shirt. I get it cleaned. I bring it up. I pick
... See moreShe and others wanted to find a way to restore their sense of community. They wanted to weave and the question was, how? “We chose activities that we knew people really cared about, but where there was no controversy,” she says.
Link
To say that Americans pay for civic participation and not news is to say that they care about paying for membership in a community, not digital content.
Yoni Greenbaum • The Hyperlocal Economics Nobody Wants to Admit
Hyperlocal is the only model. Between yesterday’s Pew Research survey data and last week’s newsroom revenue analysis from Justin Bank, journalism funders and support organizations have two sets of data they can no longer ignore. Together, they expose the fallacy of national and metro-centric economics and confirm what funders have long suspected:... See more