The answer to for-profit social media: Digital Public Spaces

I read a WIRED opinion piece. Which talked about the need for public digital spaces. Which is social media not driven by profit.

He called them online parks. Digital spaces where you can have a good time like public parks. But you don’t have billboards anywhere telling you to buy some useless trinkets.

This can resemble real parks where you can meet people of all backgrounds. And move us closer to the goal of an open web.

Right now, you meet people around the world on the internet. But with echo chambers, you start to deal with people that think like you and may even look like you.

Funding the New Public Digital Space

The author explains that social media can’t be done for profit. Because of the incentives that being a for-profit provides.

The funding for the non-profit social media service will be an issue. Which the author did mention in his article. That it may need a wealthy backer in the beginning. Almost like a seed round.

Maybe the service can run on donations at the very start. I don’t know.

Also, there needs to be a good selling point for people to use this service. Just saying the service does not make money. May not be a good selling point. But I could be wrong. Signal is very popular right now. Because they are a non-profit organisation. That promise not to collect your data in exchange for money.

Or maybe one can still have a for-profit service. But will need a new monetisation model. Telegram is a good example of this. The app is free to use. But the company makes money by selling stickers on its platform.

Something similar can be done. The video game equivalent of selling skins. (ex, Fortnite) Some of the Asian messaging apps already do this like KaKaoTalk and LINE.

Maybe the service will still want to sell ads. But without the algorithm promoting vitriol and anger. But that’s a massive known. Due to engaging posts mostly defaulting to negative emotions.

I know people give the idea of having a paid service for Facebook. But the fact is the data helps improve the product. So having a paid product in exchange for not being tracked may not be good as the free version. Uncomfortable that it may be. Also, you want the service to be free so many users sign up as possible. Which will increase the value of the network due to network effects.

What the Digital Public Space Could Look Like

While social media is flawed. It has allowed staying in touch with our friends and family. Anywhere in the world.

Imagine living through the pandemic without tech. It will be almost impossible to talk to your friends and family. If they are a large distance away from you.

Social media allowed people to participate in communities while staying at home. (Some arguably bad).

The closest example of what the service can be is Twitter. Which does not have a big market cap as Facebook. But has massive cultural relevance. Dictates the news cycle. A massive networking tool in many industries. Ground zero for the best memes.

The author said the service should be used for discourse. Just with a lower temperature. The main goal may not be privacy, but it certainly helps.

Having a service that allows you to have many of the functions of social media. Without the vitriol will be a good selling point. But that will require strong moderation. Which will upset a few people.

But I guess you have the right to kick out a person at a park for doing damage or harming residents.

A non-profit or non-VC backed service. Does not need to worry about growth to the N-th degree. Almost breaking their product to get more users. This should avoid many of the problems social media companies have faced. As they are more worried about growing. Than fixing many issues that plagued the service.

Issues Facing This Idea

Like I said earlier. I don’t want to make this into a Facebook and Twitter bashing battle. While they are flawed services. I think the world is better with them.

We just need to focus on iterating these services and social media in general in a better direction.

To better align the original vision of a free and open web.

Nothing can be ever perfect. Telegram and Signal are great messengers. Both have issues of dangerous groups starting to use their platform. A couple of years ago Islamic terrorists were using telegram to share propaganda. Signal is seeing a rise of far-right groups using the service.

So this new service won't get rid of all negativity of the web. And it won't be without its issues. But having people using a service without feeling bad about themselves is a noble goal.

People should be allowed to speak about political topics without tearing apart society. And leading to further polarisation.

This online park idea has a big hill to climb. One will need a good selling point, so people join the platform. One will need a way to sustain itself. One will need a way to deal with many of the ethical issues hitting the platforms right now like misinformation and moderation.

The design of the service must be built in a way. To avoid polarisation and vitriol. That will require a lot of thinking. Many times, issues of trolling and negativity are simply of community size. The larger a community gets the more likely they are to be bad apples. And harder to enforce community rules.

If that’s the case, how can a good experience be scaled up to millions of users?

The service will likely to put safety first and foremost. Not an afterthought, unlike a few companies. Maybe integrated into the product team. So, product decisions can be made with safety in mind.

These are my thoughts on this topic. The article is interesting you should check it out. Provides a different model for social media. I don’t think non-profit social media will fix all the problems, but it can help.

Commercial social media is not all bad. It has allowed millions of people to communicate with each other.

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