Taking Power Back From The Platforms

How Publishing Can Change the Playing Field On The Platforms

“The world is polarized.”                                                   “Journalism is on its way out.” 

“Platforms rule.”                                                                           “Misinformation is rife.” 

“Engagement is dead.”                                “Wealth and information divides growing.” 

 “Trust is at an all-time low.”                                         “The threat of AI is looming...”

…and adding to all the above.

This is the state of the world today, thanks to the internet.

But what if we could change this current state? And what if it began with focusing on how we engage with the content we consume? What if there was an application or platform (an “appform”) that makes engagement more generative, positive, and pervasive? And what if there were a business model to scale it?

Enter App-X and the Platform-Y. At a micro level, this application, App-X  would be a cross-platform and cross-medium commenting application designed around the needs of the reader and commenter, not just in service of the publisher or author. At a macro level, content producers who are interested in providing non-siloed information would have access to an open monetization platform – Platform-Y.

Platform-Y monetizes both digital and analog discourse.  It would address the problems of both ad-tech and subscription models, making access to information and content universal and relatively inexpensive, without promoting or amplifying misinformation and respecting readers’ privacy, security, and data ownership concerns. It would also decentralize content aggregation, publishing, and consumption, reducing the control by and dependence on centralized platforms. In the process, it would minimize mis/disinformation and change the cost metrics around moderation. It would do all this by adding the layers the internet forgot.

I was blogging daily over 30 years ago to my clients on Wall Street with Telnotes. As time went on and the wireless world grew and began converging with wireline, I shifted to a weekly blog called Spectral Shifts. Throughout this period, I was analyzing and modeling 1-way and 2-way, real-time and store and forward, individual and group, and one-to-one and broadcast communication networks and applications for text, voice, data and content over wired and wireless connections.

When I left the Street in 1999 to start an any-to-any messaging ASP, I stopped blogging. So, when the blogging revolution rose like a phoenix out of the ashes of Internet 1.0, I had already been there, done that. But around 2011, as I returned to my telco and broadband roots, I re-entered the blogosphere and noticed there was something wrong with content distribution and engagement – more specifically, commenting. The latter was filled with toxicity or banality when they were enabled and much of its potential utility was deprecated.

This realization came on top of what I already knew to be true about the internet from the 1990s. Because of its four-layer protocol stack, no one had thought to add additional layers to build scaled and sustained interoperability between networks, platforms, and applications. There were no settlements, and this was assumed a virtue. In their place developed the oligopolies of the platforms. The absence of two-way settlement systems resulted in enormous global imbalance of risk and wealth as digital networks pervaded all aspects of our lives.

As I put two and two together about 10 years ago, I began imagining App-X: an application that could appeal to readers and commenters of all types; especially active commenters from day one.  But it could also expand the appeal of commenting to grow a nascent, moribund market and increase engagement. And App-X would not look to displace existing commenting platforms; rather enhance them. I also envisioned Platform-Y, a platform for information publishers and platforms to better interact with readers. Unfortunately, I had to stop my development when I realized that the technology, particularly for AI and NLP, wasn't evolved enough to accomplish what I saw as necessary to build a scaled business model. 

Since then, I have been studying the marketplace: the major players, actors, and users. I have analyzed the micro/macro problems of content publishing and the resulting negative impacts on related industries and society. Nothing has surprised me; it has simply underscored what I observed about a broken business model around engagement in 2011. I also noticed that most commenting applications and platforms focused on the author or publisher, not the reader or commenter.  They were typically siloed to the platform and didn’t facilitate extended short or long-form, cross-platform discussions. 

2023 marked the advent of easily accessible AIs and LLMs, and I realized that building this “appform” was now within reach. LLMs provide the tools that can make commenting more rewarding, engaging, and generative. This is done by filtering, summarizing, distilling, and isolating important points and facts in a sea of information, opinion, banality, and trolling.  And at the end of the day, it is engagement with and around content (quality) that is more important for publishers than mere eyeballs (quantity). The icing on the cake is the cost-effective resolution of the moderation dilemma by a collective of informed and engaged commenters.

The publishing business is at a critical juncture and trust in online media and content is at an all-time low and getting worse. They and we need an approach that gives voice and agency to the consumer to make content production and consumption generative.  To illustrate this I have assembled the wireframe of features for both App-X and Platform-Y and outlined the business models. In the process I have also developed a settlement system for commenting that provides a path to universal access to information and knowledge sharing and generation.  I welcome chatting with you if you are interested in providing feedback or helping me turn this vision into reality!