flattr - A social payment service

Welcome to my blog! If you like it or me, give money to me by pressing the nice flattr button at the side bar.

Hello?! … are you still there??

Great! Some months ago I read some news about these Piratebay guys that ruined with their BitTorrent tracker the whole movie and record industries. This time these news have not been about the next industry they are about to take down, but about that they seriously thought on how money could be transferred from the consumers to the producers in this cursed “all-for-free”-Internet. The result was a new service that is called Flattr and currently still is in beta phase. Kachingle is by the way another service of this kind, based in the United States while Flattr is – as Piratebay – of Swedish origin.

So what actually is this type of service all about?

Let’s start with a disambiguation: The terms “micro payment”, “social payment” and “crowd funding” are used in this context more or less synonymously. “Micro payment” denotes the transfer of very little amounts of money, independent of how many people are involved in this process. In contrast “crowd funding” is a joined effort of many people to create an aggregated amount of money. In this case the amount of money that each individual contributes is non-relevant.

“Social payment” is the favourite term used by Flattr and Kachingle themselves. The type of service they are offering is a combination of “micro payment” and “crowd funding” and sounds of course much more social better if named “social payment”. So beside transferring small amounts of money out of the crowd to the creator, each participant can express her/his appreciation by hitting the Flattr/Kachingle button on the creators Web site. Quite similar to this meanwhile omnipresent “Like – Thumbs up” button of Facebook.

In general it works like this: First of all you have to become a member of the social payment service. You then define a fixed monthly amount of money that will be shared to all the things you show appreciation to. Each time you press the button on a Web site, blog, etc. – that needs by the way to be also a member of the same service – the click is logged. At the end of the month, your amount of money is divided by all registered clicks (Flattr) or all registered visits at clicked URLs (Kachingle) that you performed during this periode. The resulting per click/visit amount is then transferred to the originator of the Web content at which you clicked the button. As soon as you are a member of the service, you can also place such button(s) on your own Web site and thereby receive appreciation in form of money from visitors.

The resources to which such a button can be attached are not limited. So in lack of a well-fitting name, these things are just called “a thing”. They could be a Web site, a blog post, a podcast, a video, a movie, a comment, etc. The only thing they have in common are that they are on the Internet.

Flattr and Kachingle also offer similar functionality like social bookmarking and micro blogging sites, just think of Identica, Twitter, Digg it, Stumble upon, Facebook and so on. You can see what others liked/forwarded and so as a consumer may discover new, specific or trending topics or as a creator get your stuff out to the public.

Official video – “This is flattr”

Kachingle vs. Flattr

The major difference between the Kachingle and the Flattr network seems to be in privacy. Like said in the previous paragraph, you can go to the homepage of the service and discover what others liked, what are the most favourite and upcoming things. Flattr just shows how many people pressed the button for a specific thing. It is not possible to see who did so and also not what else was supported by her/his click. Kachingle in constrast shows everything to everyone. You can see how much a specific site earned by the Kachinglers, who donated this money and how often these persons have visited the site. Moreover you can see on a per user (Kachingler) base, which Web sites have been visited, the number of visits and the number and amount of payments that have been transferred.

Beside the differences within the services, is there anything else one should consider before signing up?

At least there are some things about which you should make up your mind when starting to use such kind of services. Most of them are taken out of the German speaking blogosphere that seems to be at the moment the vast majority of all Flattr and Kachingle users.

Money

Let’s first come straight to the point: How much money could you earn out of the usage of Flattr and Kachingle? For Kachingle it is not that hard to get the data. Just go there and check it out. As example let’s take the most popular one Carta, a German blog about politics, economics and the digital Public. They are a member of the Kachingle network since 17. Dec 2009 and have received so far $ 347.50 from 86 Kachinglers.

For Flattr it is not that easy. A single click seems to be worth on average between 11 Cents [1] (data for TAZ, May) and 29 Cents [2] (data for tim.geekheim.de, June). The actual value of a single click seems to vary according to Tim Pritlove [2] between € 0.01 and € 1.64.

Certain blogs and Web sites have not made a secret of their revenue and their reported incomes for May and June are:

So at least if you are a bit of a major blogger or other professional Web content provider you can earn quite a considerably amount of money out of social payment services.

New source of income

As you may have noticed there is also a – so to speak – classic newspaper on the list. According to what they have earned so far and what they wrote [3], flattr means for them a promising new source of income in times of constant decrease of the circulation numbers of paper edition newspapers. While the taz already makes use of it, others still keep just writing [4] about this new phenomenon.

More straight expression of opinion

The usage of social payment services could enable a more straight and serious expression of opinion. Tim Pritlove writes [5] that the click on a social payment button is always paired with liability. So as also money is involved, you may not be as fast as when pressing the “I like” button of Facebook. In other words you have to think if the work you want to value is really worth the money you are providing by the click. Still as the total amount of money you are spending does not increase by each click, you may not take it too serious.
　
Misleading
　
Let’s assume I have found a nice YouTube video and want to share it. I embed it on my blog together with a hint similar to “… watch this, so funny!”. Accidentally or on purpose the flattr button is also placed on this post, as it is on every other post on my blog. Now some of my visitors want to honour this video via social payment services with the intention to support the actual producers. If these visitors are Web veterans – no problem – they will well now that they need to follow the link to YouTube to get through to the originator. In case they are non-experts – normal Web users – the flattr button located on this post will most probably suggested that they can directly value the work of the original author by using it. So in this case I can and will receive money that is originally not meant for me.

Non commercial

Many blogs like also this one use the Creative Common Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license (CC-BY-NC-SA) to publish their content. In the Internet and especially the blogosphere a basic principle and common habit is to reproduce extracts and sometimes even full content of others work. Beside pure text content also photos, music or videos are taken from the original blog or Web site and posted somewhere else. So what happens if you do so as a flattr participant and the content is licensed under a CC-BY-NC-SA license?

Is to offer a flattr button already a commercial intention and thereby a violation of the license? Or does it depend on the amount of revenue you are creating with it? [6]

Liability

The answer to this question may also have much wider implications. If your offered service (blog, Web site) is considered to be of commercial nature because of the flattr button, additional regulations – mainly defined by the German Teleservices Act (or the corresponding law in your country), the competition law and trademark rights may apply to you and things will get much more complicated. So you will not only have to provide a much more detailed imprint. [7]

Subject to taxation

Let us assume that you are a student or employee with nothing special that needs to be declared to the public authorities when it comes to taxation. For fun your are running a blog and recently integrated the flattr button. Suddenly your last posts become very popular and people keep hitting the flattr button like hell. At the end you have received by this a significant amount of money.

Now is this something you need to declare to the authorities? Will this even affect your tax rate or social status? If due to this your status will change from that of a poor student to the one of a small entrepreneur, what will your health and social insurances charge for your next membership fee?

Share of the cake

As always everyone wants to get her/his slice of the cake in such a system. So when you flattr something, your money is not entirely transferred to the thing you are flattring. The social payment service itself is already siphoning off money. In case of flattr it is 10% of your monthly revenue. To get the money to or from your social payment service of choice, you need to utilise a money transferral service like PayPal or Moneybooker that also withhold a little service fee. So in the end it is not such a direct and clean money transfer as it is mostly proclaimed.

And now what?

There exist many – sometimes contradictory – opinions about how to approach the listed issues best. As flattr and Kachingle have not yet become that popular on the Internet and seem to be firmly established in only a few sub-communities like the German speaking blogosphere, it still keeps to be thrilling where this experiment will lead us to. As already stated in the introduction, social payment services are serious candidates for addressing the yet not solved endeavour to preserve free access to (most) resources on the Internet while assuring at the same time that its creators get paid for their valuable work.

I already started using it, as I like the idea behind flattr. For now I will only offer a single button at the side bar of apfelkraut.org and medfloss.org.

I am looking forward to the next iteration of social payment services, when I can myself flattr a thing and thereby value the work of a Kachingle user! And the best is that there is already an open alternative approaching in form of Openflattr.

For more information … sorry, all in German:

• [1] “taz.de: Flattr hat das Tool angeboten, was wir uns immer gewünscht haben” – CARTA
• [2] “Flattr, zweiter Streich” – The Lunatic Fringe
• [3] “Freiwilliges Bezahlen von Online-Artikeln entwickelt sich gut” – taz Blog
• [4] “Flattr & Kachingle – Spenden für den guten Text” – Zeit Online
• [5] “I am flattered” – The Lunatic Fringe
• [6] “Flattr und andere Zahlungsdienste in Blogs – Rechtliche Implikationen?” – Offene Netze und Recht
• [7] “Rechtliche Probleme der Benutzung von Flattr in Blogs” – Internet-Law

[via netzpolitik.org]

Apropos: Da gab es doch mal einen Privacy Scanner, der die Privatsphäreneinstellungen von Facebook unter Verwendung eines Javascripts überprüft hat. Schade nur, dass er aktuell laut Homepage (reclaimprivacy.org) nicht mehr zu funktionieren scheint.

Off topic: Für Freunde wummernder Bassboxen ist auch “Exodus”, die Abschlussarbeit von Alexander Lehmann für seinen Bachelor of Arts in Virtual Design, absolut einen Click wert. Ein Musikvideo mit NOISIA & Mayhem ft. KRS one.

Austria: Eng, Jul 2010 (64 pics)

For more information: Almdorf Eng.

bitte mal kurz den Fernseher auf lautlos stellen, damit ihr mich versteht.

Ihr schafft es zu jeder Europa-/Weltmeisterschaft von neuem, uns glauben zu machen, dass der zur letzten Fußballmeisterschaft angeschaffte Flimmerkasten schon wieder unglaublich veraltet ist und man sich sofort den neuesten Stand der Technik bei einem dieser Elektrogroßhändler hinterherwerfen lassen sollte.

Bewegte Bilder wurden farbig, die Fernseher flacher, die Auflösung höher … in zwei Jahren spätestens gibt es die dritte Dimension für alle. Jeder Schritt ist dabei so bedeutsam, wie die Dampfmaschine für die industrielle Revolution …

Aber wäre es auch möglich … kurzfristig … ohne Aussicht auf das große Geschäft … nur Euren immer treuen Konsumenten zur Liebe, ein paar Informationen/Daten weniger zu übertragen?

Denn diese Vuvuzelas nerven schon ganz schön … und die Aussage “Eine Eliminierung oder Filterung des Vuvuzela-Geräuschpegels ist technisch ohne ein Beeinflussung des Gesamtsignals nicht möglich.” (via zeit.de) scheint ja doch nicht so ganz zuzutreffen. Schaut Euch doch mal die Beschreibung “Vuvuzela-Filter” drüben bei den Surfpoeten genauer an. Die Hörbeispiele klingen sehr vielversprechend und bei soviel Innovationsgeist auf Eurer Seite, wäre es doch gelacht, wenn Ihr das nicht auch hinbekommen würdet, oder?

Und auf die, durch die rausgefilterten Vuvuzela-Frequenzen freigewordene Bandbreite, könntet Ihr gleich noch ein paar mehr Pixel packen, damit wir auch beim nächsten mal wieder einen Grund haben, bei Euch zu kaufen und den Fernseher auszutauschen.

… nothing to add.

Corpus Delicti - Eine Schallnovelle

Gestern gab es dann ordentlich was auf die Ohren und Augen. Neben der perfekten Symbiose von verlesenen Worten und dargebotener Musik, wurde das Stück auch sehr passend visuell untermalt, in Form von Animationen und teils grellen Lichteffekten. Die eigens für das Stück komponierten Lieder ver-klang-bildlichen die Handlung in eindrucksvoller und teils sphärischer Art und Weise, lassen aber vor allen Dingen Zeit, um das Gesagte gedanklich weiterverarbeiten zu können. Während der literarischen Passagen wurde Juli Zeh auch schauspielerisch durch die Bandmitglieder unterstützt, so zum Beispiel Christian Neuburger unter anderem in der Rolle des Moritz Holl. Gemeinsam wirkten sie wie eine eingespielte Schauspieltruppe und nicht wie ein loser Zusammenschluss einer Autorin und einer Band für ein Theaterprojekt. Auch deshalb ist das Theater der geeignetste Ort für dieses ‘Extra’-Genre … nur manchmal hat man sich, noch besser passend zur Musik, eine unbestuhlte Konzerthalle herbei gewünscht.

Wer sich selbst überzeugen will – ein kleiner Ausschnitt aus dem Studio:

Eine rundum gelungene Veranstaltung, die ohne Einschränkungen weiterempfohlen werden kann. Die nächste Möglichkeit scheint sich vorerst in Bernau am Samstag, 29. Mai 2010, um 20.00 Uhr zu ergeben oder eben aus der Dose: Corpus Delicti – Eine Schallnovelle, erschienen 09/2009 bei Strange Ways Records. Mehr zur ursprünglich klanglosen, rein papier-basierten Novelle Corpus Delicti: Ein Prozess von Juli Zeh findet man zum Beispiel bei de.wikipedia.org.

Ich will mehr solcher Schallnovellen !!

Weitere Informationen:

• Volkstheater München
• Slut (Homepage | MySpace)
• Juli Zeh

Valkaama - the new Open Source movie

… and no worries, the movie is not about Open Source, but is released following the same principles than Open Source software. Beside the actual movie also all of its sources (like raw material of 173 GB in size, the script etc.) are freely available.

The title Valkaama is a composition of the Finnish words “valkama” (home) and “kaamos” (polar night). In a bit more than one and a half hours the director Tim Baumann tells the story of two very contrary characters that hook together not quite by accident to finally reach their ultimate destiny in Lapland. The drama is based on the novel “Valkama” written by Hendrik Behnisch.

The official trailer is embedded at the end of this post, you can watch the full movie directly at the homepage of Valkaama or download it via BitTorrent.

I really like it … one minor thing to criticize could be the audio of the voices, but as the movie is published under the Creative Commons BY-SA license with all sources at hand, I am pretty sure that we could spot an improved version soon. In case you also like the movie, you can make a donation via the homepage or buy the official DVD to support the project.

For the German speaking readers there is also an interview with the director and producer Tim Baumann over at netzpolitik.org. Furthermore Tim wrote his diploma thesis “Chancen von Open Source Software Geschäftsmodellen und Entwicklungsansätzen in der Filmindustrie” about the Open Source approach in the film industries. According to the film it should be really worth reading it. Valkaama was supported by VEB Film Leipzig who are producing and publishing their movies after a similar Open Source approach.

Update (2010/02/01): Over at jorni.de is a detailed review of the movie in German: “Valkaama-Review: Poesie in filmischer (Open-Source-) Form”.

SourceForge.net - former FOSS platform

This is now all gone. According to their recent blog post “Clarifying SourceForge.net’s denial of site access for certain persons in accordance with US law” they disallowed users from ‘rogue states’ to interact with their platform and since last week they are also automatically blocking any IP (visitor) from certain countries including Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria.

It appears really strange to me that they still show phrases like “Find and develop Open Source software” or “SourceForge is your location to download and develop free Open Source software.” on their front page. I am not yet sure if they should add the note “… in case you are from a ‘good’ country” or better remove the term “Open”.

At least it is clear that it is not Open Source anymore what they are doing as they are infringing two of the most crucial principles of the Open Source Definition which read like this:

• “5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups: The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.”
• “6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor: The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.”

SourceForge seems not to be familiar with these and is blocking users to comply with the US law … and hell yes, the US is the country whose Secretary of State recently gave a widely honored speech about Internet Freedom.

Happily there are dozens of other real FOSS portals/platforms where you can now move to and host your FOSS project while preserving the original idea of Open Source.

Articles about this in German are available at golem.de and netzpolitik.org.

Auch hierzulande und auch nur als Ottonormalbürger kann man durch Spenden – egal welcher Höhe – die Hilfsorganisationen bei der Soforthilfe und beim Wiederaufbau unterstützen. Möglichkeiten gibt es genug, so hat zum Beispiel das DZI eine Spenden-Info “Erdbeben in Haiti 2010″ in Form einer Liste mit seriösen und unterstützenswerten Organisationen zusammengestellt.

Aber Vorsicht! Reicht man die Spende zweckgebunden (Verwendungszweck: “Für Haiti”) ein, so darf diese vom Empfänger auch nur aussschließlich für den angegebenen Zweck eingesetzt werden.

Das Leid und Elend von Menschen in anderen Regionen der Welt ändert sich aber – trotz der aktuell großen Medienpräsenz von Haiti – nicht. Und spendet man dieses Jahr dann wirklich auch noch ein weiteres Mal speziell für diese (anderen) Mitmenschen in Not?

Die Gefahr besteht, dass ähnlich wie beim Tsunami 2004, der Katastrophe eine Spendenflut folgt, die nur zweckgebunden eingesetzt werden kann und dabei andere, ebenfalls wichtige Projekte der Hilfsorganisationen – trotz vorhandener Mittel – leer ausgehen.

Deshalb am besten nicht zweckgebunden spenden und darauf vertrauen, dass die ausgewählte Hilfsorganisation die Unterstützung denjenigen zukommen lässt, die sie am dringensten benötigen.

Good Google?! (image by bonnae)

Hey … the news and blogosphere are full of praise after Google announced that they are considering to discontinue their Chinese business (Google.cn) if they still have to censor search results and to reveal critical privacy information of dissidents to be compliant with Chinese domestic policy.

It is just hard to imagine that Google now suddenly cares more about human rights than about their own wallet. I like more the way how Evgeny Morozov puts it in his post “Doubting the sincerity of Google’s threat” [via netzpolitik.org]:

“Google was in need of some positive PR to correct its worsening image (especially in Europe, where concerns about privacy are mounting on a daily basis). Google.cn is the goat that would be sacrificed, for it will generate most positive headlines and may not result in devastating losses to Google’s business (Google.cn holds roughly 30 percent of the Chinese market).”

So in the end it is still all about the wallet … but ok, Ethan Zuckerman has a maybe more neutral view about the motives in his post “Four possible explanations for Google’s big China move”.

If Google really takes it seriously, I am just curious how long we will have Google.de here in Germany after these alarming developments …

Until now apfelkraut.org is still accessible from within Germany, but as I have quite some occurrences of the terms “open” and “free” on this page, I was wondering (like Horatiorama did) if my site can be reached from behind the Great Firewall: Positive, according to just-ping.com and websitepulse.com it is not blocked. So happily at least I do not have to rethink my Chinese business …

[image taken from bonnae]