One advantage of becoming a non-profit is that when people keep asking me, “What’s your business model?” I can just smile and say, “I don’t have one.” (That’s how I’ve answered the question for the last two years, anyway.) Of course, even non-profits need revenues to pay for expenses, so here are my plans for revenue generation in the new venture.
1. Quick-Delivery Conference Audio. Shortly after a major event (1-2 weeks, depending on the number of sessions) we’ll release all of the audio online for a fee. It might cost, for example, US$5 per presentation or US$100 for all 30+ sessions from a complex conference. We’ll split the profits 50/50 with the event producers. Note that we’ll still publish the conference sessions at the rate of one show per week like we’ve always done, but if you’re in a hurry you can pay a few $$ for the privilege.
2. Membership. This will be modeled after public radio. Membership will not be a gateway to the content. The content will always be free with the exception of the quick-delivery option above. Membership may get you special web-site features or thank-you gifts, but it will primarly just be a way for you to support our on-going operations.
3. Grants. Ideally, the above will cover all our expenses, but we may seek private (non-governmental) grants for special projects, to help us ramp up, or to launch new programs or series on specific topics or in new parts of the world.
Here are a few paragraphs — the long elevator pitch — I’ve written about my new non-profit venture:
Every day there are scores or even hundreds of fascinating and important conference sessions, lectures or other presentations that are lost. They simply evaporate because no one captures or records them. Some of these presentations are by the greatest and most inspiring minds of our time, and many could be important to people in the far reaches of the planet, if only they could hear them.
My new project is to capture (record) all of these presentations, post-produce them, and make them available worldwide for free.
To record tens of thousands of events each year, we will appeal to the social conscience of the worldwide army of podcasters – 10,000 today, and 25,000-50,000 within a year – who I believe will be enthusiastic about the opportunity to give back to their communities and to the world. As a side benefit, these “podcaster stringers” will hone and extend their skills and build their reputations in ways that could benefit them financially and otherwise.
We will build an online “dating service” that will match podcasters with events in their communities. Likewise, we will recruit volunteer writers and producers to create and edit the metadata and descriptions that accompany the recordings. Content will be managed, and quality will be maintained, by a Wikipedia-like system and community. High-volume content will be delivered by a combination of BitTorrent and partners such as the Internet Archive.
We will cover not just IT or even technology, but literally every topic about which someone speaks and another person finds it valuable enough to capture.
More to follow over the days and weeks to come.