On achieving our goal

Take a look at the media landscape at the moment and it's clear that we're in a state of heightened transition. The rules of the game are changing, companies are downsizing, and job titles are fast becoming irrelevant. The cleverest companies are innovating faster than they can produce good content, because they know the battle for the future of the media will be rooted in understanding and creating new platforms.

We've seen the broadsheets concede defeat and make their papers more readable, we've seen The Independent reinvent itself as 'I' and trial a new lower cost, and we even saw The Observer - a heavy weight important news outlet - nearly collapse from financial troubles. There's no doubting the fact that things are changing quicker than anyone can keep up with and a great deal of that change has to do with you and I. The new literate. The twitterati. The social media generation. Whatever you want to call it, we're the root cause of this media headache that's happening right across the globe. Old power systems are being shaken as influence begins to flatten out, rather than being concentrated centrally in places like News International and Time Warner.

But don't for a second think that it's manifest destiny to have a social mass media, because the old powerhouses of influence, with the same biases, agendas and deciet, are reinventing themselves quickly. Let's take a look at Murdoch's latest offering - The Daily. "Bringing you a package that's smart, attractive, and entertaining" they say on their defiant portal site. "New times demand New Journalism" they proclaim, except to me, this is not New Journalism, it's business as usual but on the new, sexy medium of the iPad. Nothing has changed except the way people consume their media, and that's the key here. The Daily does absolutely nothing to bring you into the picture. It does not use new technology to give you a say. It, and the iPad, defiantly ensure that you remain a consumer rather than an active participant. Is that what you want?

Lets take a look at the InfoGraffiti model. We say that you're a news setter, not a news consumer. We want our output to reflect exactly the concerns of the people, and not reflect the concerns and biases of the wealthy people in a position to own newspapers. We're run from the bottom up and not the top down. Really, the culture of InfoGraffiti and it's associates (wikipedia, linux and open source culture in general) is at complete odds with everything that Murdoch and The Daily are trying to achieve. They have their vision of the world, and we have ours.

So where does that leave us? The Daily might look all roses, but don't be fooled. Murdoch is in exactly the same position that InfoGraffiti finds itself in right now; he's pushing a new, untested, unproven platform - and so are we. He's identified an audience which he'd like to sell his information to and we've identified the same audience as one we'd like to give our information to. He sees this audience as a market, we see them as fellow human beings.  He might have money to throw expensive launch parties styled longingly like a Steve Jobs presentation, but he knows the stakes are high right now. To News International, this is do or die, and they'll throw everything at it.

He's asking for 99c a week for his new Daily, and he'll get it. That money will allow his organisation to grow further and to capitalise on the instability and uncertainty of the media landscape. He will launch new online only brands, and he'll use his subscription model to monetize even further. Let's not be naive enough to think that he's not in a powerful position. If he's successful, you'll see this media landscape swallowed up by business as usual. Do we want that, and if we really care about it how can we ensure it doesn't happen?

Well, right now, we're in a race. They're better funded, but we're more resourceful. They will play their hand buying and bullying everyone off the track so we've got to be strong. They'll gain speed by collecting a monthly subscription and this is where we are lacking - severely. The difference we have is a distinct lack in overheads, so we don't require any where near as much money as they need to achieve their goals. So to the readers, the contributers, the commentors, and to anyone who cares about expanding social media out of its niche and into the mainstream, I ask - you must subscribe too. Middle England, Middle America, Middle Europe, and Middle Asia need us. They're choices are limited to mainstream outlets and they're not used to finding their own information. Our top level goal as an organisation is to wake people up and inspire them to the reality of new content and a new medium, and there are a whole number of ways we can acheive that goal, but we have to strive to become an established global brand.

As you read this, many of you may be thinking, 'but our goals are simple, we produce a DVD each month'. Sure, that's our short term goal because that is what we're capable of achieving right now. It's an innovative and groundbreaking idea, but it's not the only idea I, or InfoGraffiti, will have. It might be a little rough around the edges at the moment, but we've built this new website on the insanely powerful Drupal platform. With some finances behind us we can begin a sprint towards achieving our goals with a website that can do a huge amount.

We can have a community owned, and global media channel. Broadcasting on Sattelite TV, on YouTube, on demand, and on cable. We can have crowd sourced news stories, collaboratively edited news casts, collaboratively edited documentaries and a collaboratively edited TV Schedule. We can use Drupal to collaboratively produce a newspaper publication every month and have that distributed globally using a similar model to the one we currently use. This is all possible thanks to the platform we've built InfoGraffiti on. I want everyone who takes part in InfoGraffiti to let loose on their ambition. Really think about what we are, what we can achieve, and how we can achieve it, because distributing disks is just phase one of a much bigger plan. But it's important to take one step at a time and focus on the task in hand, which is getting Episode Two released and this website developed further.

It's something I'm not comfortable talking about - money, but it's the one simple factor between us and them. We have every tool in the book at our disposal, but they have money. We can move quicker, more efficiently, more effectively, and in a way that no one has ever even considered before, but we need funds as a catalyst to things happen. We have to be ambitious about what we want to achieve, and with that in mind, we've got to be serious about making it happen. RIght now, each episode is taking close to a full working week to produce - and that time costs money. Realistically, the project cannot go on without financial support because it has to be someones responsiblity to produce a high quality release at the end of each month. Murdoch can pay his staff thanks to huge sums of ad revenue, but we can't, and this is a problem.

As of today, I'm starting a subscription model. Subscriptions cost a minimum of $4 per month, but if you'd like to offer more per month, you can. Together, we can prove that capital is not the only model to fund ambitious media endeavours. Right now, Murdoch is getting his 99cents a week to spew his vile bullshit to the masses, I am asking you for the exact same amount so we can spread our message of inspiration and a better world. For the first time in modern history, you and I are on a level playing field with big media tycoons so who do you want to see succeed? We don't need crooks, liars, mercinaries and thieves. We can do this ourselves. Subscribe now, and lets make this happen together. If you want to help with development of the Drupal site, please get in touch.