del.icio.us gets sold to Yahoo!. Flickr gets sold to Yahoo!. MySpace gets sold to FOX. Upcoming.org gets sold to Yahoo!. And call me crazy but I expect Digg to get bought any day now - not a rumor - just a hunch.
What do all these acquisitions have to do with one another?
Each have passionate communities of participants providing content to them each day. Each would have no content without their users wanting to participate, without seeing some value in sharing. Each had staffs running these services who earned millions upon millions of dollars upon being acquired. Each gave their users - from these multi-million dollar buy outs - without which these services would not have been bought - nothing. Zilch.
I’m not saying we are going to be bought out, or that the site is being taken over by anyone. But this site, like those mentioned, would not exist without you - and if this site does suddenly earn millions of dollars - YOU SHOULD GET SOME OF IT.
Help us make Philly Future different. Lets start a conversation.
my new blog
did you see my post about the Northern Liberties blog?
http://www.phillyfuture.org/node/2296
go!
Some Ideas
First, ban people like the guy above for posting something that is incredibly unrelated. And, you know, be mean about it.
Second, I will buy Philly Future from you. I offer you 8 dollars, a ticket stub to the eagles monday night game, and Stu Bykofsky.
Third, PF is doing great, and seems to be growing a lot. The one issue with the site will always be original content versus pieces: While it is nice to have original stuff on there, you also dont want to take away what makes the Philly blog world so great: original, diverse posting in a million places. I am not sure you can except people to write their "best" stuff, and not try to use it to draw them back to their own blog. But, the downsides for PF are obvious.
its all about media ownership
large corporations dominate radio, television, newspapers, and now the big boys are climbing all over themselves to get "market share" online, and threaten to change a free and open platform into a very different beast. sounds alarmist but look at what corporate control has done to radio and newspapers (obviously newspapers woes are complex but I would argue the knight ridder solutions are myopic and intended to serve the interest of wall street not joe reader).
Media Tank has an excellent resource guide on the Fox myspace purchase and its interests online.
After a quick look at my finances, I am prepared to offer $12 for PF AND a pitcher of lager.
I wasn't thinking of
selling... the question is - if there was a way for it to earn a large amount of money... how could *everyone involved* - you - benefit... not like the cases I sited where only the few did.
PF
Karl, I know you've heard this from me before, but if PF suddenly came into some money I think it would be great to set up a PF foundation that could encourage community building in Philly, from buying a table at fundraising events to contributing to programs that teach younger people and immigrants how to use the information highway effectively, and so on. I know there would be problems along the way and finding efforts that most people could agree on would be tricky, but it might be worthwhile. Those with a blog on PF could join the foundation, with an elected board. Dunno, just tossing it out.
There ya go
This is what I'm talking about Julie! I think this is definately an idea to discuss. I'm looking for thoughts like these and others.
no
Daniel, the comment you're referring to, I think, is from someone whom I encouraged to post on Philly Future. Though this most may not have been the right place to put that comment, we want to encourage new bloggers, not ban them!
who said
anything about people posting their best stuff only here? PF has encouraged people to cross-post here to gain a broader audience.
so save your $8 and go look on the bright side.
In terms of the 8 dollars
In terms of the 8 dollars and Stu Bykofsky, I hope that came across as the joke it was supposed to.
In terms of the original content, I do think that there is always going to be a little bit of a struggle with cross posting stuff, at bigger community blogs versus your own... ie, where does the conversation happen, etc.
Anyway, that was me making a joke, because, as Karl knows, I consider him the blog God of Philadelphia, for doing what he has done (along with the help of some others, of course) at this site.
No offense taken :)
I could use a beer... I'm getting stuck at home when I should be at the blogger meetup!
"where does the conversation happen" is a great question. I look at it as an opportunity. If we do our job right - and build the tools to enable it - conversations will happen wherever folks feel it should - wherever it is most natural. That could be your blog, in a message forum, email, face to face, or right here.
The question for me is finding the time to build those tools and in the meantime encouraging folks to volunteer time highlighting the most relevant discussions here. The volunteer team as it stands does ALOT - so much I can't see it do much more - but we could do better with more help - or a more distributed approach.
And ummmm don't call me a Go....oh shit.. I better re-watch Ghostbusters.... :)
I'll take the lager
But not for PF. Hehe.
Really not the point of my post though. I wasn't offering PF for sale.