Has the rise of crowdfunding highlighted the ‘democratising’ potential of the online world?

link to podcast

Ideas:

1. Read Week 9 study guide, find articles about crowdfunding/online democracy

The article I found about online democracy and moderation by Gregorgio does not shown electronic resource on Deakin Library website, so I found its PDF over Google Scholar.

2. Define key terms: crowdfunding/Online Democracy/Moderation and reference

3. Find relationships between social media and online democracy/crowdfunding and social media

4. Find a successful crowdfunding project on Kickstarter

I went to the most popular projects directly as I want to find a project that has been reached the amount of crowdfunding.

5. Write podcast speech draft, and find music for podcast (with creative commons license)

The music I found on SoundCloud does not have license, and has no link shows whether the artist may give permission to use with credit, so I go to Creative Commons website to find music with cc license.

Then I founded Bandcamp more effective, so I went to Bandcamp finding music tagged with creative commons. But I cannot find download link without paying for the album, so I paid for the music.

6. Record and edit

I have recorded several times with my phone as my throat dried out and started to ache after talking for 6 minutes, and there were always speaking errors.

Key concept:

Crowdfunding

where groups or individuals seek sources of funding among non-traditional investors (Borst, Moser and Fegurson, 2017).

Democracy online

Freedom of speech is one of the cornerstones on which democracy is based (Gregorio, 2020).

Online platforms help to establish the standard of free speech, and shape democratic culture in global scale. Online platforms are free to decide how to show and organise online content according to predictive analysis based on the processing of users’ data.

Moderation

The screening, evaluation, categorization, approval or removal/hiding of online content according to relevant communications and publishing policies (Gregorio, 2020, p.2)

It seeks to support and enforce positive communications behaviour online, and to minimize aggression and anti-social behaviour.

Connections:

Crowdfunding and social media:

To reach large numbers of potential funders, project creators commonly aim to build online crowdfunding communities on social media.

Social media are presented as a requirement for the crowdfunding process in general.

Social media also amplify the “bystander” effect.

Relationship between  project creators and funders:

Prior crowdfunding studies confirm that the type of relationship between a project creator and funder affects the decision to contribute to a crowdfunding project.

Unconnected people can also gain access to Twitter messages and public Facebook pages when they use regular Internet search engines.

Social media platforms and online democracy:

1. social media foster freedom of expression by empowering users to share their opinion and ideas cross-border.

2. the high degree of opacity and inconsistency of content moderation frustrates democratic values.

3. online platforms have a responsibility rather than a duty to guarantee the respect of fundamental rights and freedom.

Example:

Project information

FinaLace launched by Sabinetek on 25 Jan 2021.

FinaLace, the world first 3-channel binaural Bluetooth earphones with realtime mixing & monitoring and sound FXs for content creators. FinaLace is also the first Bluetooth earphones with digital audio effects like noise suppression, reverb, vocal removal, and mixing, making it perfect for a wide range of uses.

Why the project is successful

1. The creator has created 2 successful project before

2. Sabinetek is an innovative technology company attracting top talents from acoustics, communication and electronic engineering. (Indicating profession in Bluetooth earphones)

Reference

Gregorgio, G D 2020, ‘Democratising online content moderation: A constitutional framework’, Computer Law & Security Review, 36: 1-28, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2019.105374.

Borst I, Moser C and Furgeson J, ‘From friendfunding to crowdfunding: Relevance of relationships, social media, and platform activities to crowdfunding performance’, New Media & Society, 20(3): 1-19, doi: 10.1177/1461444817694599.

Kickstarter (25 Jan 2021) FinaLace, a wearable audio studio for content creators, Kickstarter, accessed 26 January 2021.

Music of podcast: Keep Up the Momentum, Friend by Chris Zabriskie 2020 (CC-BY-3.0)