"User Generated Content" & Ownership: The User as Citizen

[elements]

Current controversies with both Livejournal/Six Apart and FanLib have one stark issue in common: the conflict between corporate desire to profit from users and the content they generate, and the users' own sense of ownership not only in their content and creativity, but in the hosted services they use to publish that content and to connect with

Comments

[lynnenne]

I think it might be worth looking at the business models of credit unions, and other business in which members own a piece of the company. When I signed up for a bank account at my credit union, I had to deposit $50 in an interest-earning account. I was not allowed to withdraw that $50, or the interest, as long as I was a member. In return, I owned stock in the credit union, was invited to board meetings and was allowed to vote on governance issues. This was attractive to me, because I had a say in the kinds of investments the credit union made (for example, ethical companies vs. polluters for their penion funds). It was also attractive to the credit union because it put money on their books, which they could in turn lend to other members or use to borrow from larger banks

[ardath_rekha]

In a way, that's what LJ used to be. You either paid into the "credit union" or got an invite from an existing paying member. I think that honestly, for me, the first sign that things were going astray at LJ was when they did away with that. I had to wonder just where they were going to get the additional funds to pay for the spike in bandwidth that would inevitably follow... and now we know where.

[ria_oaks]

Hah, I was going to post about credit unions and you beat me to it. :) I recently started working in a credit union and have learned all about their philosophy as a result (had never even heard of them before 3 monthes ago!). This post immediately made me think of CUs, and that this could be a possibly viable solution. It seems unlikely that it would actually happen, but it does have a very real precedent in CUs. I really like the community and people oriented philosophy of CUs, and that's quite similar to what LJ could ideally be for fandom. Our motto is "people before profits" - not something that many businesses seem to say anymore!

[blackbird_song]

You've really made me think here, and I've linked to this in a post of my own. I wish that I could give you something more constructive just at the moment, but I'm too stupid from sleep-deprivation to be of much use. I am absolutely going to be rolling this around in my head for the next several days, and I'll be re-reading your post at least once.

Thank you very much for giving us something serious and constructive to attempt.

Catherine

[maggiehoneybite]

I hope you don't mind if I link to this. I'd like people on my flist to read your essay and think about what it proposes.

[elements]

I give permission for anyone to link this anywhere. thanks!

[starlitshore]

Erica, have I ever mentioned how much I love your brain? Like a lot. <3

I am so on board with all of this. Representation is so crucial right now, and what with the rights of both LJ citizens and American citizens being called into question, I think this is a great idea. I think fandom is extremely lucky to have people like you, Aja and Heidi (and countless others, but I don't know them and so am sticking to you guys) working to bring us fair publicity and to fight for our rights as internet users and fandom members. That you're all willing to facillitate movements like this is amazing. Even if they don't completely succeed. Kudos!

[bookshop]

exactly. and that goes back to what I said above about fandom being a good central location to be an aggregator for the entire livejournal community. Because we do have so much organization and we can use that to reach out to *everyone* on LJ.