Philly History Blogging experience
This semester is quite different from others because I get to know a quite innovative platform to post my blogs. Here I'd like to thank Prof. Finkel for introducing us to Steemit. This platform gave me enough enthusiasm to work on this course, even though it also has many shortcomings. From exploring 1918 to learn Philadelphia’s museum affairs, I benefited a lot from the urban studies. I got to know those non-profit organizational landscapes and confronted many sophisticated issued that cultural institutions dealt with in their daily life. Public trust is so significant for them to drive the growth of organizations. Also, self-management, such as collection management and facility maintenance, is crucial, too.
This class not only increases knowledge but also accumulates a small fortune for us. We've been looking for donations. Although based on virtual currencies, we hope to fund meaningful activities or groups to realize its value.
Some Hypothetical Suggestions (maybe immature) for Steemit:
I wrote an essay yesterday to illustrate my ideas about Steemit. My professor said that of course there were many flaws in this platform, but we can figure out how to improve it. I have some immature ideas in my mind which I don't know if it works or not. Here are them:
Reward System
As I asked before: if not for the monetary reward, how many people would use Steemit? How many people will stay once the subsidy stops or the rewards are reduced? Can it still maintain such high user motivation? We can see that Steemit uses the cryptocurrency as the only reward method to keep this platform running. Therefore, how about adopting various reward ways to maintain the network flow. For example, we could combine the cryptocurrency reward with the Honors reward. As a content output platform, Steemit can select and make use of those great contents to publish magazines and books. On the one hand, entity books are excellent to disseminate the network platform and expand the impact of it. Also, this way could provide authors with honors. On the other hand, because the content of the magazine is selected from the platform, it can not only effectively use the resources of the text platform, but also promote the improvement of the quality of works in the platform. It also keeps the creators enthusiastic and prevents good content from being plagiarized. On this basis, we could build a platform of high credibility, which will attract more formal institutions such as university and museums. In other words, we need to find another driver.
Commercial Logic
As for the commercial logic, the problem is that the platform is merely the issuer of the cryptocurrency, and lacks a strong incentive to drive the growth of users. Thus, is there anything else that we produce now could be the impetus to drive the growth of creators? Steemit could also attract companies to invest and advertise. As with the growth of the network flow, Steemit could also create profit expectations with the advertising fee, obtains the favor of the investor, and improves the user's stickiness through the high-quality content, which will help to raise the advertising price. Users with high creditability could become an advertising spokesperson. Under this circumstance, the blockchain could play the role of supervision and give the advertiser support.
100% of the SBD rewards from this #explore1918 post will support the Philadelphia History Initiative @phillyhistory. This crypto-experiment conducted by graduate courses at Temple University's Center for Public History and MLA Program, is exploring history and empowering education. Click here to learn more.
The alterniative reward to content contributors could be a good idea. But it seems hard to satisfy everyone with any physical reward other than "money". Maybe some cyber rewards which they can use for a wide range of purpose can be considered too.
True. I just try to connect Steemit with the "real" world to make it credible. The magazine idea is an example and one of the methods. So, we could think about more.