1p2u: delivering to the public
p2pnet news view P2P:- At the end of last month p2pnet became the first site to sign up for Crosbie Fitch’s 1p2u micro-patronage project and to date, I’ve clocked up 21p from two readers (thanks 
), which is about 38 cents in Canadian dollars.
One penny may not seem much but to put it into perspective, p2pnet is still a non-entrepreneurial one-man project. I’m a musician and p2pnet started life when I thought it’d be fun to share, and collaborate with, other musicians via MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) which, at the time, I’d only just come across.
In other words, p2pnet became an advocacy site completely by accident.
It’s supported by an anonymous contributor, and by renting space to online concerns whose owners are friends as much as advertisers.
The income, hovering marginally above an amount most North Americans would consider to be completely inadequate, supports myself and my family, and keeps the site online.
I say this because for a while, to boost the income, I tried textual advertising — you know, green lines under given words and when your mouse pointer goes over them, a window pops which you have to click to close. Either that, or it stays up for a certain number of seconds before it shuts down.
For a brief period the text ads looked promising, but things soon deteriorated to the extent the ads were literally earning only pennies. More importantly, the pop-ups were annoying readers. So I cancelled them.
My readers are my publishers
For me, Crosbie’s 1p2u – one penny to you — epitomises what the net is supposed to be all about. Reasonable people behaving reasonably to the benefit of everyone, instead of just a few.
What it boils down to is this: under the 1p2u concept, readers aren’t customers: they’re patrons in much the same way that in the old days, artists, writers, musicians and other creators survived when someone recognized the value of their works and decided to provide them with resources of various kinds, including money, so they could continue to create to the comfort of society as a whole.
In my case, my readers become my publishers, which I think is pretty cool. If they like what I produce, they pay me to write more. If they don’t, they don’t.
Simple.
But it’s only a penny!
Most people can afford one penny, or the local equivalent, and pennies mount up. And anyway, I believe there’s such a thing as ‘Enough’ and I and my family don’t need much to be happy and content.
So, under 1p2u, I’m the writer. You’re the publisher. And what you’ve paid to publish now belongs to everyone – to the public – and whether or not you want to pay me to write, or produce more news, which can then similarly be shared, is entirely up to you.
When I was talking to Crosbie about his (to me) brilliant 21st digital century patronage concept, “We’re restoring the original meaning of the word ‘publish’, ie, ‘to deliver to the public’,” he said.
“It was only copyright that changed it to mean ‘to let the public look, but not touch, read, but not copy, be inspired by, but not improve’.
“It’s time to liberate the people, to let them share and build upon their own culture once more. We’re taking the people’s culture back from the publishing cartels.”
Stay tuned.
[PS - 1p2u is still in the Alpha development stage, with all that implies.]
Jon Newton – p2pnet
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
September, 2009
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September 6th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
So you are a patron of Crosbie.
September 6th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Jon. I’d like to donate for the countless hours of reading material and entertainment this site has provided me. However this micro payment thing looks sketchy and im not even sure I can use paypal with it.
is this paypal link still kosher for donations? http://www.p2pnet.net/donate/p2pnet%20net.html
I would also encourage other readers to do the same if they aren’t sure about this micro payment system.
September 6th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
@ Lando calrissian
The PayPal links still works, but why not try 12pu?
Meanwhile, I’m not sure what you mean by ‘sketchy,’ but when you use PayPal you’re puttting $ into eBay’s pocket, and neither company is famous for protecting users.
Crosbie and 1p2u are, on the other hand, are up front.
Cheers!
September 6th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
When 1p2U is sufficiently tested, I’ll enable payment of one’s dues, and one of the first payment providers will be PayPal. If you let your dues (to various bloggers) mount up to say £10, then with PayPal you’d pay about £10.50 in order to pay £10. So yes, that 50p goes to PayPal (or eBay), but then 1p2U doesn’t take a cut of what’s left.
It’s early days. At the moment I’m just keeping track of who’s due to pay who what – and checking that works ok.
I’ve written a payments system that can easily support any number of payment providers. I might as well start off with the most popular one. If you know of any that charge less than 20p+3%, let me know.
September 6th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
damn.. I submitted it by paypal. just before reading crosbies comment. Oh well, hope it helps though I support your idea. Is their anyway I can have my penny RSS feeds subsidised by the donation i just made? I was not aware paypal was going to be the primary payment method.
Readers help p2pnet continue its message.
September 7th, 2009 at 6:38 am
@lando, I’m sure Jon would appreciate any donations readers may like to give as a reward for the prodigious and very interesting output p2pnet has already produced.
However, rather than donations, 1p2U is about letting people exchange money for work, to pay for output to be produced (not for output already received). It lets readers incentivise or sponsor the blogs they like, such as p2pnet, to continue producing great articles by letting them pledge a penny for each article they produce in the future. At such time as you find it convenient to pay dues arising from your 1p2U pledges, perhaps after 500 articles you’ve sponsored, the feature to do this via PayPal should have been enabled by that time (umpteen weeks).
So no, disappointingly, 1p2U can’t take any money at the moment. In any case, PayPal aren’t too keen on intermediaries building up a significant amount of undisbursed funds. So even if the feature was already enabled, 1p2U would be obliged to limit payment to dues you’d accumulated (which if only a few pennies isn’t worthwhile paying).
September 7th, 2009 at 7:59 am
Crosbie, when you do get the payment part worked out, could you post instructions on how to ensure that the right amount actually goes to Jon instead of PayPal’s pockets? I’m extremely frustrated with that dishonest, money-grubbing entity as they recently increased the number of transaction types they charge fees on. I would hate to see people like John losing $10 or more on fees alone, as happened to me with my most recent eBay sale.
September 7th, 2009 at 8:52 am
SteelWolf, I will try to make 1p2U as transparent as possible. That means that when you make a payment you will see who gets what (and it will be clear in advance of that payment who gets what). 1p2U will not keep anyone’s transactions secret from anyone else. All 1p2U users will be able to peruse each other’s accounts. That means you can make doubly certain that your penny really did end up in someone else’s account – you can see what they see.
PayPal evidently believes its charges are fair and competitive, and if they are there’s not much anyone can do about it. It’s up to the market to provide a cheaper payment facility if such is possible. All 1p2U is doing is acting as an exchange – of work for money. 1p2U will make the payment handler’s charges transparent.