New Chapters

The emerging market wants to escape the manufactured cultures set by modern software, such as social networks, growth strategies driven by influence, or ad re-targeting that guides a user to a product via psychological manipulation. I remember when the advertising industry educated the user on something new they didn’t realize they needed. Honest, world-class content that can push products that never existed into people’s hands. Not via algorithmic cattle tending, but via the activation of pure customer curiosity.

Ad revenue, subscription plans, tokenization/micro-transactions. 3 of the most prolific and usually, the only economic model administered by software companies. Years and years of optimization of these strategies has led the development of software down paths that corrupted the beauty behind the science, stripping the empowerment once provided by Silicon. To the point that the art of leadership got infected itself, where growth is measured in planted seeds rather than stewarded curiosity.

Crypto-currencies (Smart Contract platforms, specifically), aside from the scammers, launderers, thieves, and insidious characters, was intriguing due to a possibility in providing alternate money-making methods packaged with software solutions. Methods where the creator and the user, both had shared ownership over their digital footprint while traversing the various acres of TCP/IP. A lot of folks push these extreme narratives of a Web 3.0, a new internet, a new this, remove the past, etc. Well, before that dramatic can be achieved I think there’s 1 thing left to do in the 2.0. Providing penance for the destructive winds released the past 10+ years.

Alternate monetization strategies, A.I. safety regulatory frameworks, responsible entrepreneurship, stewardship mentality, and true garage-based innovation. A side of the pendulum I have been waiting to witness once again. I felt it swung so far this time around to the opposite end, providing a stage for many that cause our stomachs to turn, curl, and internally raise hellfire. I am optimistic the counter-balance will be a prosperous turn for technology, the markets, and future leaders that provide a sense of comfort and safety rather than chaos and anxiety.

I am hoping to provide some data and real-world user-studies via Seer to help steer these future leaders in the right direction. I want to initially tackle monetization strategies and A.I. safety (royalty calculations and copyright/watermarking tech). Success in terraforming the technology industry is a cooperative effort and cannot be done alone. With enough independents that share notes with their respective creations, ventures, or experiments, the proper models can be devised and be used as examples to help address the harmful Silicon Valley narratives we all hear repeatedly, so much so it has now become a nuisance to hear the wailing. But, that doesn’t mean it isn’t still valid, we just need to act.

Regarding data collection habits, I have been brainstorming a bounty board system. Where topics and criteria for approval are sometimes automated and users can complete them like a gamified daily mission system. Once they provide the data required it is queued into an approval queue where vetted manual approvers, anonymously rate the data collected. If a satisfactory grade is calculated from the reviewers the data is stored in the database and payments are dispatched, while royalties are also tracked for long-term returns to the original authors.

I am working on different economic models currently, how the data is weighed, the topic addressed, how to define quality, and whether to entertain generative submissions. It can be complex, but there can be this world where quality control returns to internet media at scale, while also providing gig-economy benefits to data providers. It may seem like a utopian reality, thus not probable or too idealistic, but not necessarily. New small business ideas can erupt from such a world, where individuals build small firms to monopolize bounties for a specific topic, etc. I still view that as a success, but then comes potential for biased data providers and the sacrifice of the “retail/consumer” data provider. Like all markets, such realities are destined to occur, so building a robust system that allows for such entities to coexist with the individual data provider is paramount.

It feels bittersweet to be in this state again. It’s been a while, maybe 2 years, since freely typing ideas and publicly building them provided a sense of relief and joy. I truly believe the future is a collaborative one; creating and shipping visions that improve cooperative dynamics, evolving freelancing opportunities, and educating the world without fear of retaliation.

That could very well be the hint for a long awaited renaissance.