A New Social Media Paradigm

I have been dreaming and hypothesising about this idea for years ever since I started building community web sites in the late 1990s for Alternative News Network.

But it was not until I started working with that wonderful and free content management software (CMS) called WordPress that I became convinced that my idea was eminently do-able even today using existing and proven technologies.

With an active community of 1000s of developers and technical experts, there will soon be a clever WordPress plugin to turn my idea into a reality easily available to all.

I have also entered into a discussion with the best hosting provider I know to provide ‘turn-key’ installations of a pre-configured instance of WordPress just for you, expected to cost just a few dollars per month. So, why don’t you join me on this Social Media Revolution?

Basic Concepts

• You OWN your own data, images and posts by hosting it all on your own web site. No more censorship, no more algorithms, no more (targeted) advertising, no more corporate interference and agendas. You do what you want, publish what you want, whenever you want. True sharing and publishing freedom. The only limits that may be imposed on your publishing freedom are the laws of the land where your web site is hosted or where you live.
• Easily FOLLOW friends, family, news, hobbies, etc. as long as their web site also provides a so called (RSS) ‘feed’.  See the examples I have created here of a Timeline and a Friend’s Feed.
• Comments always all appear under the original post. No more comment fragmentation with some comments here and some comments there like we see on some other social network. As the owner of the post, you have complete control over which comments stay under your post (and which commentators should be banned forever).
• But wait, there is more… On you own site you could also post your resume or curriculum vitae, go to town on your hobbies, your photo albums and you can even have password protected pages just for family, friends or special interest groups. The sky is the limit when you run your own web site. And with WordPress it is much easier than you think.

The New Social Media Paradigm in Action

To see these new Social Media ideas in action, have a look at my (aggregated) Timeline and (single) Friend’s Feed.

I am sure this page will change as my idea develops further. As you will imagine, I am dead keen to see your comments and ideas right here under this post. Don’t forget to ‘Like’ this post too.

— Barefoot Warrior
Editor and chief author at BarefootWarrior.org

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