How Spot Us Works 1. Anyone can create a “story idea.” Example: “I would like to see somebody do an investigation into the quality of our water in San Jose.” 2. Journalists create pitches that can be inspired by your ideas. 3. We get pledge donations - but nobody’s credit cards are charged until we reach our goal. This way you know your pledge will play a meaningful role and won’t be squandered. 4. The finished content is licensed under a Creative Commons license and Spot Us will try and get it published in as many places as possible. 5. If any news organization wants exclusive rights to the story, they will have to refund a percentage of the original donations - so you will get your money back to invest in a new story. 6. Democracy flourishes, you feel good. About “Spot Us” « Spot.Us - Community Funded Reporting
So, basically they’ll cover only the stories that:
- The crowd can afford? So, just the stuff that wealthy individuals in the crowd are interested in?
- The crowd think is worth paying for? So what happens to the necessary, if not-so-entertaining, stories? If you had five bucks to throw at a story would it be one you’d enjoy reading, or one that was challenging?
The crowd is a moron. I would be happy to be proved wrong, however.
