Meeting minutes
plh: There will be no recording of this session, captioning is unfortunately not working
...
Ralph will help with getting captioning working
Introduction
Chris: Chris Lawrence, sr program manager for grant for the web, from Interledger foundation, presenting. Also have another session later today
...Reminder that TPAC code of conduct applies
...Grant for the web is a 100M (USD) fund to help develop web monetization and interledger protocol use through things like standards, projects, etc
...so far the program has committed close to 8M USD in over 100 grants
Distributed Media Lab
Guest: Dave Gehring, one of the first grantees
Dave: Dave, CEO /Founder Distributed Media Lab, 3 year old startup, goal to establish new economic framework on the web for journalism
...was a google, then joined Guardian news, helped launch AMP project
...distributed media lab, then web monetization came along
Chris: relationship between the web & journalism?
Dave: distinction between journalism and new media.
...journalism is thriving but monetization not working. Media companies who employ journalists are struggling
...work with local media & how to create business models that are tailored to the economics of the web
...Needed to hold power accountable
Chris: what is the promise you saw in standards-based approach & web monetization
Dave: became apparent in 2011/2012, there was no way for media companies to operate on the web - no standards-based approach to syndication
...models are either ad-based or consumer based
...on consumer funded side, at am impass
...didn't see how to do that, all paywall solutions were proprietary. Unrealistic to assume everyone would select the same proprietary system.
...cross posting difficult due to paywalls on the original content
...stumbled across web monetization as a building block
Chris: what cultural shift needs to happen to change silos
Dave: cultural change well underway
...movement towards collaboration in the media industry
...realizing that resources are scarce, nature of competition is changing.
...editorial collaboration has provided a basis for commercial collaboration
...fundamental problem is asymmetry on the economic model, cannot achieve scale that puts them at disadvantage.
...can only achieve this scale with standards based approach
...only way to compete with large platforms
...Grant for the Wb project is centered in news industry, leading edge of what makes the web awesome. want to make sure content & information we need to be free and self governing - when this is undermined we take away the value of the open web
...web monetization use case, sports: subscription $ goes into a queue, is distributed to participating publishers
...browsers didn't come with a way of making money. web monetization one way of trying to address that discrepancy
...hoping to show other industries way to use this to make $
...focus on providing good incentive for news organizations to participate is one side of the equation. Other side is getting consumers to participate - getting it as a standard built into browsers to decrease friction for consumer adoption.
...is successful & universally applied, foundation laid for commercial innovation
Mallory: using Spotify as an example - what properties/features you think would be similar. e.g recommendations
Dave: platform allows forming collections of content & put them on their websites. Don't have same approach to algorithms that platforms take. news has editors, takes opposite approach to algorithm-based platforms.
...Spotify analogy is around commercial aspect for distribution of creator content
Mallory: how money gets to creators - spotify model mostly goes to distributors (labels), journalism has the same problem with freelancers
Dave: focused on news media business models; fund organizations that employ journalists as opposed to freelancers- believe need editorial oversight
...the function of journalism requires a team to maintain integrity; looking to fund those teams
David Benoit: disruptive nature of web monetization on ad-based models. what incentive would some of these platforms have to support web monetization
Dave: driving reader revenue for news publishers is a goal, content makes the open web better - of there is not a robust open web then search/ads suffers. News will be multi-modal. Current efforts are clunky and piecemeal. Web monetization could reduce friction, also help with political side.
...distributed model for readers could be huge for the industry
Grant for the Web and W3C
Chris: Role of W3C in keeping Grant for the Web focused on standards?
Jeff: Grant for the web has been focused on standards.
...architecture for web monetization project is broader than news publishers.
...freelance writers could also take advantag
...also opens up global opportunities for more economically disadvantaged countries
...W3C can provide guidance, horizontal review
...Working on collaboration between Grant for the Web & W3C
...more to come
Chris: Grantees are looking for revenue model, but the hope is that they are also advancing the standard
...downstream collaboration could be things like reviewing proposals for web architecture, e.g. accessibility
...Could help grantees in places like Africa, India, South America join W3C
...need more diverse voices in W3C
...Grant for the Web program design includes diversity and inclusion globally.
...can include and underwrite memberships
...stay tuned for more news of upcoming collaboration