Creating 100,000 jobs - will this take Steem to the Moon?
How can Steem possibly create 100,000 jobs?
In my last post Go Local to Go Big - will this take Steem to the Moon? I discussed the idea of using the steem blockchain as a foundation for creating local community networks.
This has huge potential for promoting steem at a local level and recruiting an order of magnitude more users than are currently on the platform.
People love to access local information on the web. Events, jobs, road closures, items for sale, sports results, local news...
Originally this was provided by local websites like the one I ran in the Midlands that reached over a third of a million visitors a month at its peak. Then Facebook came along and rather took over the role of local information provider.
Users are not rewarded by Facebook for generating content. Nor do they have any say at all over who gets to see the content they produce. Facebook's algorithms are totally in control of all curation of content.
A better alternative .. Steem Powered Community Networks
For a new way of doing local community networks imagine how good the steem network could be.
Creators could post any information they wanted in any form or format, at any time of day, at any frequency they desire.
Those content creators will be rewarded in steem according to the quality and popularity of what they add to the network. Authoring rewards will encourage them to keep posting regularly to ensure that the information is kept up to date.
Once steem backed local networks start to appear, and people begin to understand how they work, the migration will begin on an epic scale.
With ever more content being created on the local networks curation will become increasingly important.
All the content won't just arrange itself in a nice tidy order it will need curators to aggregate, filter and give order to the content coming in.
That is why each local network will need to engage one or more curators to manage the content.
Potential mechanisms of how this might all be set up will be covered in a following post but the key point is that those curation roles will have significant earning potential.
Depending on the size of the community a network serves, and the activity on the network, the role of Town Curator could become a good part-time or even a full time job.
100,000 jobs...
So where does the 100,000 jobs come from?
Of course it is a wild guestimate, but it is based on some solid foundation numbers.
In the UK there are approximately 2000 towns, above those in size there are over 60 cities. Beneath the towns in size there are over 40,000 villages across the UK.
Let's say just 10% of villages, towns and cities established fully working, vibrant steem based community networks. That would be about 5,000 networks.
Some of these would be larger, some of these would be smaller. For the smaller villages one curator would be sufficient. For the bigger towns and cities several curators would be needed - for example for news, for what's on, for jobs etc.
Across the whole world there around 200 countries.
Even on current activity levels it is not hard to imagine steem becoming popular enough to general local community networks in at least 10%, or 20 countries on the planet.
Some countries will have many more villages, towns and cities than Britain, some less.
But if we take an average of 5,000 community networks in 20 countries averaging one curator per network there you have your 100,000 jobs.
Of course you can twist and turn these figures in any which way you fancy, but the potential for job creation on a very large scale remains.
How long will it be when people are asked that common question "What do you do for a living?" you will begin to hear the answer...
"I work for steem..."
Is this all a fanciful dream? Or could local community networks catapult steem and steemit into the big time?
I would welcome feedback, and a much needed reality check, on this idea.
Please don't do the numbers on this until it has been considered in more depth. They are scary!
I would particularly welcome the thoughts of the likes of @timcliff, @lukestokes and @aggroed who might cast their experienced eyes over the concept, of @transisto who I believe looks keenly for ideas that bring new users to the platform, and of @taskmaster4450 who has a future vision that seems to pinpoint quite clearly where steem could be heading.
This is just my big picture overview of the idea.
If people think it has merit I will expand further with more details of how I envisage taking this forward.
You might also be interested in some of my other posts :
SteemRadio - schedule of all the steemit radio shows - week beginning 15 January 2018
Homesteaders & Preppers on steemit - the We are Sparta edition - 300 reached - v12 [12 Jan '18]
Delivering a 5 week steemit course to promote the platform in Wales - anyone done anything similar?
A Challenge for 2018 - can I sign up 100 new people to steemit in one year? #signup100
Steemit in Wales - heading for 100% growth - first meetup on 10 February
SteemCommerce - Businesses accepting payment in steem (v 2 @ 3 January 2018)
That was amazing! After last night I believe the steemit community can do anything...
Yesterday I became a Dolphin. Now it is time to set my steemit targets for 2018
[ graphics by @pennsif ]
100.000 full time curators, wow, that is an amazing thought. Would it be enough to battle the 1 billion bots army?
I like this idea definitely the way forward for sure! Get it rolling out :) 💯🐒
You're so nice for commenting on this post. For that, I gave you a vote!
Thanks much appreciated💯🐒
Now you should develop an algorithm to create and publish a directory of #localsteem tags for those 5,000 early-adopter communities in each of 20 early-adopter countries...
Actually, create an algorithm that automates the entire planet and makes it easy for a community to claim a tag.
Rock on with your practical thinking, my friend. ;D
😄😇😄
Thank you. I have been thinking along those lines, but unfortunately I don't have the technical skills or steem resources to do that. But if there is anyone out there who can help me...
Hmmm... puts on thinking cap... let me think about how that might be done...
I think this is a great idea. If people wrote front ends to the blockchain, then it would facilitate this shift. Much like Facebook groups were used to setup local trade guilds. The current front end of steemit would not facilitate this well, but if other front ends were written to make the collection, curation and presentation of this information easier, I think it would easily create 100,000 in the UK, millions around the world.
With the flood of writing taking place, curators will be in high demand. I like it!
Good to see you here Rob! This is a great idea! I like it too!! I only bounce back to fb because of the contact I have with locals and to connect with friends and family that are not on Steemit.....yet. This idea of means to have local groups is whirling in my mind! I am not a coder or developer, but inevitably, dreams do come true!! Have a wonderful day friend, great to bump into you here! Namaste
Wow this is excellent @pennsif! Nicely thought out and does seem doable. I will be interested to see how the 'Network' would look. I am very happy to help drive this forward for Lampeter, so if you need an extra pair of hands then let's get a revolution started! The only worry I have is what is the currency crashed?
We have social media overload and the majority of it is fragmented.
Facebook wins by numbers, but as you quite rightly say no reward, if anything we are willing slaves to provide content.
Instagram, Facebook by pictures
Another started recently in my area called NextDoor! Yawn! enough!
RIP a whole bunch others, so the desire is there to find the ultimate platform that can do it all and provide an income.
So, Steemit wins. It gives reward and it's indexed by Google. Which is one of the things I have been testing while creating content on Steemit.
So, can this platform deliver where others have failed, I really think so. Can it be used for a community why not, can it create 100,00 jobs you could classify it by, if you earning from Steemit it is a job already!
I have been thinking of something like this. Nevertheless, steem is already compartmentalized into communities. Maybe not as local as you suggest but then, it further proves that your idea will work in execution because all this communities are working on a not-so-micro level.
Most communities that exist are national, there are some town communities but the national ones have strength. That is just geographical, interests-wise, there isn't so much of that.
I see utopian as an interest-based community same as some other unmentioned communities , what I am just saying is that your idea is not new but that is further proof that it will work because it has been tested and it is working.
That's actually a pretty awesome idea! I love how more and more functional applications are starting to surface for the Steem ecosystem. Is it realistic and doable? In some form, why not... I mean, it took more than a decade for the Internet to go from "something for creepy nerds" to mass adoption... and look where we are NOW!
This sounds doable. With Steem it really seems like the only limiting factor is our imaginations. Like all things, there would need to be a pioneer to test and prove the model. I think small towns may be too low tech to jump on board early, and large cities too oversaturated to build a market. After thoroughly working out the model conceptually, finding the right towns/cities to pilot this would be key.
That's a very interesting concept! I think it could work. I believe that once Steemit is presented in a format similar to Facebook instead of a blog it would be easier to make such groups.
@appics is aiming to be something between Instagram and etsy where you can share photos and videos as well as have a wallet to deal with payments.
Sola is something between Instagram and tinder where you swipe through photos but I find it very hard to navigate.
I think eventually we will see a platform emerge that is more like FB and Instagram that we're used to, and then people will feel more at ease migrating to the crypto platforms.