We’ve all seen the power of open source information to solve a mystery. Crowdsourced investigations like George Webb does are often faster than traditional news in getting to the latest stories and gathering evidence. Even the news relies combs through social media for its sources — but only when the source fits their agenda.
What about everything that the news doesn’t show you? Or that the social media feeds aren’t currently covering? It’s time the crowd has the ability to see for itself, to self-coordinate and become its own reporters.
Even if you’re in lockdown, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to explore what’s happening in another city by linking up with someone willing to livestream exactly what you want to see, without having to wait for the news media gatekeepers to serve it up for you at their leisure.
I'm building a platform to allow curious citizens to crowdfund bounties anywhere on a map, that other users can capture by starting a public livestream there. Users who are near enough to collect these bounties get paid, kind of like uber, but for livestreaming. Streamers will earn tips for realtime requests during streaming too. And we are going to try to maximize the earnings you can make with the video you collect.
This isn’t just a tool to build a utility to facilitate public collaborative research, we think this has real potential to help lots of underemployed people make income on the side.
Currently, we are just about to launch our alpha version, but we need some feedback from people willing to try it and give feedback.
In particular, I’m looking for people who A) want to help disrupt the fake news media machine, B) people who are currently in the gig economy, or C) people who have been financially displaced by covid and looking to make money by using their cell phone.
If this sounds like you, or if you are simply interesting in making money by catching video bounties near you, let’s talk.
To join our alpha group, you can drop your email (burner is recommended - we don't want your PII!) here: www.vidi.world
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Empire_of_the_mind ago
You're biting Citizen?
goldenagewhen ago
I enjoy their app. What do you mean by "biting" them?
Empire_of_the_mind ago
doing the same thing
goldenagewhen ago
No - citizen is still very curated and top-down, indexed primarily on police scanner activity decorated with crowdsourced photo and video of the event.
VIDI is a portal that gives you the power to see any desired public location in the world, by renting a nearby user’s smartphone camera for a public live stream. You can spend tokens (which can be earned or purchased) to crowdfund bounties for live streams anywhere, any time, OR you can earn tokens (exchangeable for cash) by collecting bounties and tips.
Empire_of_the_mind ago
that explanation is much clearer. so I can offer access to my camera, based on my location, to someone who wants to see what is going on where I am.
that is a good idea.
goldenagewhen ago
Thanks :) As a streamer, you get the entirety of the crowdfunded bounty - for desirable coverage, we anticipate that bounty to be quite significant. You then stand to earn tips during your stream, the easiest way would be to let your viewers tip to suggest where you go during your stream. All footage you collect is searchable by anons later on the map, and costs a small micropayment in tokens to view, which you then earn as well. So you own the equity in your video and receive royalties. One viral clip that uncovers something important, and you could have passive income off the video for the foreseeable future.
Empire_of_the_mind ago
give it a ruder name, something like "Journalist." That would be hilarious.
goldenagewhen ago
Ha!