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We wanna give a big shout out to @GrantForTheWeb for making our first issue possible. They're funding a wide range of creative projects to enable new ways for more diverse artists to get paid on the web. https://www.grantfortheweb.org/grantees (thread)
Artists — illustrators, musicians, comedians, writers, meme-makers — they make the web beautiful and enjoyable. Yet in the big tech landscape, platforms draw large revenues from ads & paywalls while artists aren't paid remotely close to the value they create for these companies.
The fact is, we need way more experimentation to figure out how to make things better for artists. Some of the most hyped tech platforms of the last few years try to solve this problem. These platforms promise to be game-changers. We think "maybe THIS is it."
Substack, Patreon, and projects in the so-called “passion economy” these might have the right idea in some ways. But can we trust that they’ll actually protect artists in the long run if they’re injected with VC-funding? When they’re *required* to turn a profit for investors?
We need to create organizations that champion artists. Protect artist autonomy. Build tools and infrastructure that enable artists to make and collaborate, instead of forcing them to fend for themselves as most mainstream platforms do.
An excellent new report from @_artcoop shows how grantmakers in the arts can help transform the art/culture sector by supporting initiatives for self-determination and community wealth — like worker co-ops and community land trusts (it's all connected!): https://art.coop/
One piece of this is to build an open standard for web monetization, as it creates a host of new possibilities to pay each other for the creative labor we put into the web.
Making that seamless is promising. But you can’t fix an entrenched socioeconomic problem with tech alone.
Making that seamless is promising. But you can’t fix an entrenched socioeconomic problem with tech alone.
That’s why we’re so excited to sit alongside other @GrantFortheWeb grantees that are working on ways to incorporate web monetization into solidarity-centered organizations, to properly pay artists for their labor. 
Such solidarity-based projects include @ampl3d, an artist-owned music platform co-operative, and @discocoop which builds tools for cooperative, commons-oriented organizations rooted in feminist economics.
In Issue 02, we’re looking forward to expanding into new ways of working collaboratively on a publication with our contributors, while helping to build and steward more free and open tools that support creativity on the web with http://distributed.press .
If you want to try out web monetization, the easiest way to do that is by installing the Coil plug-in on Firefox. With a monthly membership, you can also support other web mon’d websites like @Ampl3d, @CinnamonVideo, @EraseAllKittens, @LadyspikeMedia https://coil.com/
Also, once you’ve installed the Coil plug-in you can visit COMPOST Issue 01 and see that you’re sending us micropayments when the mushroom GIF on the top corner of our site stays animated. 
https://one.compost.digital/
https://one.compost.digital/
So we've got a ton of work ahead of us. To build better, more equitable initiatives that create community wealth. To build tools that make those initiatives possible. And to convince those with the means to invest in this future.
“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.
Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.” - Ursula K. Le Guin
/end thread
Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.” - Ursula K. Le Guin
/end thread
