Law in the Internet Society

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JoseMartinezSecondEssay 4 - 31 Dec 2020 - Main.EbenMoglen
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 The fact that the outgoing administration is working hard against a smooth transition is concerning, to be sure, but there's something insidiously disturbing about a presidential transition team crowdfunding a solution for a critical political failure. And yet, this seems like the next natural step in an iterative process in which a major problem in the United States—whether it's underfunded schools, mounting medical debt, or an uncoordinated response to a pandemic—is solved on a myopic, case-by-case basis through shared social media posts and hyper-targeted emails. Crowdfunded campaigns in the Internet society can, and do, help people overcome challenging situations, but the widespread reliance on crowdfunding in an era of social alienation and austerity also reveals much about our willingness to carry structural burdens, and an unwillingness—or inability—to mend a broken system.
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There is never a wasted moment reading John Kenneth Galbraith's The Affluent Society

 

The Band-Aid on the Broken Leg

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 The inequities that lead to the need for online fundraising in the first place will not vanish overnight. In the meantime, there is room for models that incorporate aspects of modern crowdfunding schemes without losing sight of the underlying issues nor requiring people in need to self-market their experiences. One example is Watsi, a non-profit that works with medical partners on-the-ground to identify patients whose treatments can be funded by a general pool of donations. Donors are updated about how their money is used, but the donation pool is spread equitably across projects and patients do not have to optimize their narrative to maximize donations. Perhaps the best approaches are offline: Last summer, ad-hoc mutual aid groups and bond funds were formed throughout the country in response to waves of civil unrest. While many groups used the Internet to seek and facilitate funding for their projects, the decentralized nature of these approaches ensured not only direct financial assistance but also meaningful civic engagement with their communities.
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The most-frequently-shouted comment at scientific talks in my lifetime before the epidemic ended talks was "What's the scale?" It would be good to answer the question here. Reminding the reader that crowdfunded philanthropy is (to speculate, not wildly) 0.00001% of the world's giving and 0.001% of the world's donors would be helpful.

Changes in communications methods have effects on selling. Including the selling of the grace that abounds from charity. But there are other underlying structures that do not change because the modes of marketing change. Watsi and Save the Children have a genetic relationship, as do the March of Dimes and the orange UNICEF Halloween box I carried for donations of change rather than candy when I was a kid. Nothing has ever been more powerful than the collection plate.

So what would most contribute to the draft's improvement, I think, would be some connection to the history and/or sociology and/or social psychology of charitable fund-raising. It's also good to remember the pan-handler who worked the 116th Street IRT station in the late '80s and early-'90s, who would sit with his back against the wall at the foot of the stairways of the east entrance, with his upturned Tupperware bowl next to him, announcing to the passers-by: "A yacht, I need a yacht...."

 



Revision 4r4 - 31 Dec 2020 - 16:33:03 - EbenMoglen
Revision 3r3 - 24 Nov 2020 - 15:25:29 - JoseMartinez
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