Leveling the Economic Playing Field with NING Networks
By Andrew Harvey, Creator of the Djemini Network
Hey everyone! I've been a member of the NING Creators Network since 2019, although I've been working with NING technology since as early as 2004, when we were competing with Facebook over gaining the interest of our local demographics here in the West Kootenays of BC, Canada. I had originally been a graphic designer and moderator for a networik called "Greater Trail", created by Randy McCallum. Greater Trail aimed to level the playing field between the massive business monopolies like Walmart or Amazon, and the common people's family owned businesses that are almost completely wiped out now. Sadly, our network failed to gain the interest over our local area, and fell as a result of Facebook having millions of dollars of investment and advertising behind them. And I would be remiss if I failed to mention that the average person was far more interested in playing "Vampires vs Warewolves" and voting on "Who's Hot & Who's Not" on facebook, than supporting and promoting local small businesses and artists.
I have always been passionate about creating opportunities for people to live lives outside the economic constraints of massive monopolies expecting us to stock the shelves of now trillioaires for minimum wages, and vowed I would never be a part of that world. Long story short, I spent many years homeless, and hopeless, as I watched more and more small businesses and artists go out of business, and join me in homelessness while facebook rose to power, and begun dictating the news, shadow banning dissenting voices online, and exacting shady and impersonal "Community Guidlines" that have since ravaged the public opinion, and led us into the world we have now.
Needless to say, I was able to recover enough financial stability by working odd jobs and inheriting an RV from my late Mother, to set up as my home and studio space to work out of. And that is where I am typing this message out to you from. Since getting somewhat back on my feet, I decided to return to NING, and take what I had learned from my earlier experience to craft the Djemini Network, as a place to house my film productions, community projects, and to promote local small businesses here in Nelson, BC, Canada.
I've slowly been developping various unique methods for funtional customization by using 3rd party software, iframe embedding, and basic HTML to craft the network as it is now. And my hat is off to the team at NING headquarters for being so helpful is aiding to establish this network. With excellent customer service and timely responses to my tickets, I'm proud to say I am a member of the NING community.
So where now do we go? How can we help each other to combat and stand up to this monopoly of the internet by a tiny handfull of websites like Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok and all the other intrusive, mobile based platforms that care only about the bottom line, and those who seek to fill the pockets of their corporate investors? This discussion here here to help us exchange ideas, learn from one another, and stand firm in our resolve to make communications technologies more robust, secure and most of all, educational. I would like to believe, based upon my observations, that these massive platforms have done little next to nothing to educate their members on how exactly social networking works, let alone the internet, and how to make the most of it. And therein lies our advantage.
There's a window of time that is still open to us, to explore how we might best educate the online community on how to use the internet more effectively, and NING Networks may be the key to doing just that. I have a plan in motion for the Djemini Network to offer tutorial videos on how to:
- Craft unique, functional and engaging social profiles
- learn basic HTML coding for more dynamic articles and media embedding
- create personalized advrtisements for themselves and the businesses they support
- promote and engage audiences with the idea of reclaiming the internet, and putting the ball back in the court of the common people.
If you are at all interesting in comparing notes on how we might use our NING networks to educate people on how to level the economic playing field, now would be the best time to do it. And if you are interested in joining me on this side quest to de-centralize the internet, and return it into the hands of the people who need it to grow their lives, then feel free to leave your suggestions, ideas and brainstorming in the comment section below, and together, we may restore freedom to the internet, for one and for all. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and for your consideration.
Visit the Djemini Network: https://djeministudios.com/
Offer Financial Support on Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/djeministudios
Offer Financial Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DjeminiStudios
View the Djemini Studios YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/DjeminiStudios
Perhaps this Demo Reel I put together for Djemini Studios will serve to inspire you!
Replies
Nice work!