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So did I mention that no company or government pays me for the work I do?
But you can support my work if you want to live in a world where we have the Small Web as an alternative to the Big Web of Google, Facebook, and other people farmers.
Folks: where’s the alternative to the trillion-dollar surveillance capitalists you’re working on? Why isn’t it ready yet?
Also folks: Here’s your €457/mo war chest… don’t spend it all in one place now!
(I can’t express how grateful I am to our patrons over the years but how the fuck do we compete when we live in a world where some random techbro raises $2.6M to build a people farming social network where you can only say “Yo!“ while we struggle to pay the rent?)
“We’re so glad you exist.” is a phrase I hear often.
Say what you will about Silicon Valley and venture capitalists but when they say “we’re so glad you exist” to the latest people-farming startup, they back it up with, on average, $5M in cash.
When MEPS, etc., tell me they’re so glad we exist, they back it up with perhaps an invitation to talk for free at their next event.
(We’ve had exactly €0 in EU funding but I’ve spoken twice at the parliament so yay, I guess.)
So, yeah, regardless of whether we receive any funding or not I’m going to keep doing the only thing I can, which is to keep working on making the Small Web exist (https://ar.al/2020/08/07/what-is-the-small-web/).
And the goal is that once we get to the point where we (and anyone else who wants to) can host Small Web places, that will hopefully make us sustainable (because clearly we can’t depend on public funding).
But it sure as hell would be nicer if we didn’t have to keep living a precarious existence until then.
i guess, you know that funding call but thought i send you a pointer. just in case, and to consider: https://ngisargasso.eu/
@munterluggauer Thanks. I’ve actually stopped applying for NGI/NLNet grants (and basically grants in general) as they’ve only been a waste of time in the past.
The goal is to make the Small Web sustainable for us within the current system, show that it works, and then see if we can get any funding for it (because things that already exist seem to be the only things that get EU funding – for new features, etc.)
well, i understand your stance regarding grants but i would use the same arguments toward investors, though. i would argue the latter are even more close minded. even calls and grants are overcrowded, at least one can have a good discussions with the members of the eu commission. doesn't give you money. i know well, i admit.
but it just makes me mad that important work doesn't even reach them.