KickstarterForum.org

[DoctorRocky]

Here is our position paper on Crowdsourcing To Stop Economic Inequality. Let us know what you think. More information on the site is presented below this position paper. Watch our Videos to get an overview.
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"Without doubt, crowdsourcing and crowdfunding are the single most important tools for bringing our organization and society forward." Shameem Heetun, Ph.D., CEO of Antilope LLC, the parent company of First Rate Crowd.

The goal is to create the first independent platform for the crowdsourcing community that is developed and sustained by the principle of "the wisdom of the crowd", such that the community itself will ultimately take over the majority of the control and operation of the enterprise. This concept speaks to the ability of a large community to have more insight and power than if just a few experts were involved; it provides us with the means to offer better outcomes sustained by the cooperation of the community’s members. Few tools are as powerful as a crowd working together in a democratic fashion to bring about change especially when that change involves doing good in the world for its own members.

FirstRateCrowd is a community providing a force for doing good in the world. Here we simply think that we are the one company that does it! The crowd will ultimately take over the majority of the processes required to run the enterprise With the rewards going to the members. This is a new and unprecedented model for a unique form of corporate enterprise that is more democratic in nature than is traditionally found. It allows for the eventual transfer of the business activities and rewards to the community, not to just the favored elite/ones running the company or the owners. We are firm in our belief that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunitiesand we will do this through crowdsourcing. We crowdsource ourselves for ourselves; and we will have our own crowdsourcing and crowdfunding company platform representing everyone and not just the fortunate few.

Crowdsourcing allows us to vastly reduce two major aspects of economic inequality:

First, in the Unites States, we pride ourselves on our democracy. But for most of us, we spend a great portion of our day at work where democracy does not really exist. Flatly put, we are told what to do. This personal sphere of limited influence may involve offering some token recommendations when asked but in reality, our voices are choked off. Little input is involved into the real operations of the enterprise let alone where the direction of the company should go or even how the profits are allocated.

Crowdsourcing allows us to democratize our workplaces. It gives us a vote in what matters to us; it makes our voices heard. This process creates a more collaborative environment for those of us doing the work. Fundamentally, this greater democratic participation creates better outcomes both for the individual employee and the organization overall.

Secondly, income inequality refers to the extent to which income is distributed in an uneven manner among a population. In the United States, income inequality, or the gap between what the rich possess and everyone else, has been growing markedly, by every major statistical measure, for some 30 years. Peter F Drucker, arguably known as the father of modern-day business management, spoke to the relationship between a CEO's pay and that of the average worker. He advocated a ratio of 20 to 1 in the now famous "Drucker principle." Drucker says, " Widen the pay gap much beyond that and it makes it difficult to foster the kind of teamwork and trust that businesses need to succeed." Meanwhile, according to the new AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch, the average CEO of an S&P 500 company received an annual income of $12.4 million in 2015—335 times more money than the average rank-and-file worker. The Executive Paywatch website, the most comprehensive searchable online database tracking CEO pay, showed that in 2015 the average production and nonsupervisory worker earned about $36,900 per year, a wage that when adjusted for inflation, has remained stagnant for 50 years. First Rate Crowd addresses both of these issues to reduce economic inequality. Not only will its salary structure stay within the range of the "Drucker principle," its voting structure will ensure a greater freedom of input for its employees.

In the end, the crowdsourcing community members will look after all of the operations of the entire platform with one exception. This exception provides the original founding Corporate LLC Organizational Team a say as to whom the community selects to operate the final corporate entity with rights, should this individual or organization commit any egregious actions. This action is in place for the protection of the community. Other than this precautionary measure, the community will be relatively free to make its own operational decisions. This more democratic stance empowers our community, allowing it to do good in the world by making a positive difference in the lives of others.

As the community progresses towards having its own company and platform, it receives, within limits, voting rights. This is the greater democratization we are looking for. These rights allow it to position those members it chooses into strategic positions in the corporation and platform. Not all matters are open to a vote on the platform because this would cause continual gridlock with little being accomplished. For the sake of simplicity, order, and expediency, the original founding LLC Organizational Team will initially present issues in limited numbers to be voted upon by the community until it is capable of handling these matters itself. We are ever-mindful that our site is open to aggressive action by those who would prosper from our failure. It is for this reason we require protective measures on our site. Towards this end, the original founding LLC Organizational Team will select who it feels are the best member candidates, opportunities, or actions for initial runoff elections.

The members will also have the opportunity to present, discuss, and implement new ideas on the platform. This allows for the creative spark found in the most successful companies. Once the open challenge has been met, select members of the community who are Active and Verified will also be granted the right to help determine where 70% of the platform's net profit discretionary funds will be allocated. Ultimately, the community will get to vote one of its own members into a corporate position of the LLC to run the operation. Concurrently, the community will have an overall 85% stake in the net profits of the organization to allocate.

At FirstRateCrowd, we will discuss and rate any subject material in an objective manner as a means to financially support our crowdsourcing community. Proprietary software will be developed specifically for our site allowing members to discuss a range of matters, ideas, products, or services along multiple dimensions, and then allows for these dimensions to be rated in a secure and anonymous way. Still, this process will also function as a means of self reflection to grow and develop the company. This "wisdom of the crowd," inherent in crowdsourcing, will minimize missteps and maximize new opportunities. Both point the way to better outcomes.

The platform is established for like-minded individuals who believe the world can be a better place through the process of crowdsourcing and promoting our member's values. We are pleased to be the host company specifically designed to provide our crowdsourcing community an unprecedented means to do good in the world. By promoting crowdsourcing as the single most important function within our organization we can reach our goals.

This is a for-profit community based business, which does good in the world by making a positive difference in the lives of others. Individuals in the crowdsourcing community volunteer to help and fund other people's ideas on other people's platforms because they believe in the product or service asking for assistance. They believe the world would be a better place if these products or services existed. To many of these individuals, a more desirable crowd project would allow them a greater say and involvement in the platform itself.

Our crowdsourcing plan creates such a platform. It is a model for a new form of corporate control in a burgeoning and developing field; such a model allows for the eventual transfer of the major share of control of the business to the community.

Our plan not only provides the community members novel control in the direction the initial corporate platform assumes, but it also has the potential for the community to obtain the majority share of the revenue generated by the same platform. This revenue is to be used for individual member Cash Rewards and to expand the platform. In other words, this allows the community to crowdsource and fund itself for its own benefit and beliefs. This motivational model allows the community members to engage with its own projects on its own behalf. Not only will members be rewarded for their participation on the initial site, they eventually will be rewarded with a larger-than-normal control of the underlying business entity and the subsequent course it chooses. In due time, the corporate structure places a newly-gained freedom back into the hands of its members.

In a manner similar to human development, the evolution of a business requires self reflection and appropriate feedback. Crowdsourcing supplies ample opportunity within our model to do just that; it gives us the necessary way forward to take corrective action. Members of the community have the ability to run their own ideas on a platform they control. This by itself is a positive step forward for the crowdsourcing industry. But more than this, the community ultimately has the potential to actualize and direct itself in an existential manner. The major reins of control are transferred from the hands of the LLC management into the hands of the community. This is a more equitable and democratic position; one which is guided by the values of the crowd. The concept provides the community with more insight and power with the ability to provide better outcomes than if just a few experts were involved; it is a more cooperative position. It provides for a position of strength.

Individual freedom is a rare entity in today's long-established corporate to employee relationship. First Rate Crowd changes this relationship. However, with freedom comes responsibility. This load is lightened by knowing we are guiding ourselves through the self-correcting process of feedback from the crowd. It ensures a more successful operation for all the hard work members commit to. Like human growth, the benefits of a self correcting process is immeasurable to any organization.

As a starting point, the community is presented with a business framework as a ratings company. This starting point was chosen for a couple of reasons. To start with, ratings organizations currently in the marketplace, such as Moody's in financial affairs and Consumer Reports in retail sales, exert a large and influential role in the direction their markets follow. With the success of our planned ratings model for the crowdsourcing community, we hope to achieve a similar influence over the crowdsourcing landscape. Then there is the feedback we can obtain by rating ourselves and our projects in a self reflective manner. These member rating applications, embedded into the framework of the organization, allow us to launch the project forward in a more effective manner than would alternative starting points.

The ratings company, because of its members participation, assists in its own early growths. The community utilizes itself to grow by adopting crowdsourcing principles. This goal is accomplished because members create content for the many individual crowd communities along with ratings, for subject matter within each crowd. These same members will also act as an initial advisory board to the early corporate structure helping to guide its development. For services performed, select members are provided Cash Rewards for their participation on the website. This is a company whereby the community members not only receive a portion of the profits for creating the content production, but many also have a substantial say in the direction the company grows. This type of ownership is vibrant and progressive. The more the community participates on the platform, the more they receive in the form of direct and indirect rewards.

A grassroots level of involvement by the community aids our goal of becoming the de facto standard for ratings in the crowdsourcing industry. There is a current trend for more and more large-enterprise and Fortune 500 corporations to become involved in the industry. Their huge financial, political, and social clout can cloud the direction the industry takes and disallow an individual participant from having a real say in the discourse. By creating a grassroots platform of organized individuals, we counterbalance this trend. An authentic popular stance by our members helps to un-muddy the waters of corporate influence and democratizes economic activity towards a more balanced position.

In contrast to most corporate interests, our community-based organization is composed of a large and diverse swath of the population with no financial interest in the outcome of our ratings. There is no favor or advantage to sway our judgments. For these reasons, our organization provides a clear and accurate accounting to the end user. This power is unfettered by fears of remuneration or enticements, which could bias our ratings. By maintaining this integrity, we will create the best rating standard for the industry.

Individuals who crowdsource are many times involved in projects that are greater than just their individual selves. They see a greater good and result, by contributing to the crowd and community at large. They are participatory by nature and involve themselves in innovative projects by donating their individual time, effort, and resources for the greater cause. Yet, for the most part, this community is relegated to working on other peoples’ platforms and projects. We remedy this by providing the community the opportunity to help create and maintain their own platform, allowing them to emerge their own vision of the future. This future clearly involves a crowd-sourced world as more and more individuals continue to participate.


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FirstRateCrowd
"A crowdsourced platform to stop economic inequality"

Here is the new pre-launch website.

It is still in development and in a pre-launch mode
while we continue to work on it.

Please check it out, participate if you like,
and let me know what you think of it.

You do not have to use your real name
to register on the site.

To access the site, copy this code into
your browser field and hit enter.
http://www.firstratecrowd.com/dev.firstratecrowd.com/

or just Google, FirstRateCrowd-dev

Your participation is appreciated. It will help us to
further develop and test the site.

Feel free to forward this to individuals who you think would
be interested in the site.

Rocky
(RockyLipkowitz@yahoo.com)

[Cristina]

This post has been moved to the General Chat + Introduce Yourself section.