I’m not a very technical person, more of a power-user who likes to tinker a little under the bonnet of my websites. I can figure my way around a site as long as I don’t try and change to much, but scripting and coding are generally beyond my capacity to understand hosting and services integration.
Thankfully, there are lots of people who do know how to build and code sites and services that can then be used by people like me. I’m grateful that there are now so many easy to install and use plug-ins, apps and systems that allow sites and platforms to talk with one another.
I’m pleased that I’ve been able to set up a couple of WordPress blog sites, this one included, and that I’ve also been able to add a Discourse forum as a sub-domain to this site. I thought that I would have to run the WordPress blog and the Discourse forum separately from one another, but it’s possible to integrate the two with a simple plug-in that I’ve installed.
Now I can post blogs on this site, and they will appear under my name on the forum. It’s a great way to kill two birds with one stone. To be able to share content and media via this blog, and for the post to appear in the stream of conversations that take place on the forum. It saves having to post things separately. And as more contributors are added to the forum, they can have their blogs linked, as long as they are using a platform that enables the use of the Discourse API.
But that’s not all. I’ve also set up an account on Steemit, which is a blockchain based community, that enables users to share content and earn credits or cash from their posts. It’s a trust-based system, and I’m learning how to use it and navigate the content, but the principle of sharing content and getting recognition for it is very intriguing.
Steemit embeds the content that is posted to the network with an authenticity token that maintains a record of the attribution that is given to the content creator, and when it is circulated, reused or distributed the record of the originators input stays with the content. No more just giving stuff away for free, but a business model that rewards content creators with a payment based on the usefulness and trustworthiness of the producer of the content.
I’m hoping to explore this concept in practice, and to develop a focused network of contributors to the Decentered Media project, so that any value that is created is returned to the originators and producers. It’s early days, and I’ve learnt a lot about setting up the online feeds that link the blog with the forum and with the blockchain community. I’ll keep a record of what I’m doing and share any insight I get from it as I go along.
Inspiration for this has principally come from Jamie King via his Steal This Show podcast. It’s always worth supporting people like Jamie via Patreon, and you can support Decentered Media in the same way, it would help to be able to pay for occasional biscuits and coffee.
