Reviewers of the world it’s time to start getting paid.
There’s something wrong with the state of the internet. In particular, reviews.
We write them. We look through them. We rely on them!—even when they’re written by total strangers. They provide enormous value to internet users worldwide. They’ve transformed ecommerce. Yet we don’t own what we write.
Amazon does!
Can’t we snap our fingers and ask the silicon valley rainmakers to take the democratic ethos of the internet one step further and give individuals automatic intellectual property rights for the content we create?
Pinterest is almost there.
It allows users to curate what matters to them—but it doesn’t let us get paid if our curation brings value to a company or organization. I do recall them surreptitiously trying to swap out user-pasted urls with affiliate-laden ones. Hmm. Good idea–bad execution.
Gumroad is making waves by making any link an ecommerce storefront. Not sure if this can be executed as a default in one’s ‘lifestream’.
Yotpo is doing something interesting–using algorithms (what else!?) to find the best reviews for any product. And, Yotpo, will the writer of that ‘best review’ get something in return?
And then there is VRM–or Vendor Relationship Management. There’s lots of interesting things over there–for example, a few of their goals:
- Make individuals the collection centers for their own data
- Give individuals the ability to share data selectively
- Give individuals the ability to control how their data is used by others
It’s good to know we’re heading in the right direction. Heck, there may be a startup being featured right this very instance who has solved the problem.
Regardless–let’s decide to turn the corner together and demand ownership of our thoughts and social content.
