The Interledger Community 🌱: Ben Marshall

JAM session 13: Mat from MG.Social on building ad free social media business models, token launches and more

Ben Marshall — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 10:18:24 +0000

A bonus JAM episode! Mat joined us from MG.Social – an ad free social network with blockchain monetization powered by Coil and Xumm.

We covered Mat’s background, what MG.Social hopes to be and everything from tokenomics to user retention.

See the rest of our series on Web Monetization

Looking for Dev Support?

Check out our post here

Developer support & consultancy available at Vivid IoV Labs

Ben Marshall — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 19:34:44 +0000

Hi all,

Due to funding constraints we have brilliant full stack developers with extensive development experience who we do not want to lose before our next projects commence later in the year.

We are therefore looking to share costs during the summer by assisting with any software development projects.

Things we can help with:

Web Monetization integrations
Smart contracts
General software development and consulting for both front end and back end (eg. platform development, small projects, proof of concepts)

We are flexible in terms of how this could be approached and project scope. If you are in need of some development help, please get in touch with details at info@vividiov.com

Freemitization — Grant Report #2 (Final)

Ben Marshall — Sat, 22 May 2021 10:50:07 +0000

This post is a final update on our progress on the Grant for the Web project: Freemitization

Progress on objectives

The details of each aspect of the project are included below in the Key Activities section, however in the interest of brevity here is a TL;DR for our progress:

Open source modules for Web Monetization Revenue Sharing and freemium-style Video Ad Serving are available
JAM Podcast: Web Monetization Series completed with 12 episodes, including an episode with the GftW team
UX Report for Web Monetization published
Vivid IoV Labs are now planning to become a Web Monetization Service Provider

Key activities

As previously stated we received the grant to work on four areas; advancement / integration of Web Monetization technology via the creation of two Web Monetization focused modules and development of the Peerkat platform, a user research project and promoting the technology through educational materials via the various marketing channels.

You can see all of our objectives in this post

1. Web Monetization

Milestone update:

[✅ Done] i. Integrate XRP tipbot, gather technical information about ILP and advertising implementation
[✅ Done] ii. Work with Web Monetisation testing various ways to serve ads to non web monetized users
[✅ Done] iii. Create, user test and iterate prototyped solution for serving ads with a number of users from each target group. Build out once acceptance criteria are passed through defining wireframes for user journeys (happy/unhappy paths) and accessibility requirements.
[✅ Done] iv. Finalise the freemium module and release to developers, begin design and development on redistribution of payments
[✅ Done] v. Gather feedback from developers and improve on freemium module, Implement first iterations of redistribution model
[✅ Done] vi. Finalise redistribution module, release to user and developers for testing
[✅ Done] vii. Make any improvements, fix bugs based on testing

We have received positive feedback so far and have held encouraging discussions with Metagov and Matt Mankins at Mozilla about our Web Monetization Revenue Sharing module. These are ongoing conversations, but we are hopeful that we will be assisting with integrations and developing the modules further in the future.
Relevant links: Freemitization website, Open source modules: Revenue Sharing and Freemium Video Ad serving
Check this post for demo walkthroughs
Please reach out to us on here or at info@vividiov.com if you would like to discuss our Web Monetization modules/developing.

2. Peerkat Platform

Milestone update:

[✅ Done] i. Define and develop MVP for all tiers of service, incl. Digital analytic requirements and onboard initial testers (whilst grouping them into target user groups and profiles in accordance to GDPR)
[✅ Done] ii. Collect feedback from alpha testers and fix bugs, develop additional features, work on integration with Uphold Wallet
[✅ Done] iii. Enhance user profile page (based on qual/quant data) and integrate social features
[✅ Done 🔄 Changed] iv. Optimise onboarding process to streamline user acquisition including referral mechanism
[❌ Not Complete] v. Integrate freemium module into platform for further usability testing, add UI elements to improve UX
[✅ Done] vi. Test and implement gamification of platform with user voting
[✅ Done] vii. Develop task and reward system in app to entice continued use

The Peerkat mobile platform went live in Q1 2021 and we have had 36k new users, 47k sessions and 219k page views
So far we featured the first half of our Web Monetization podcasts as content in the platform (to market WM to a new user base) and had 1,718 total views

3. Community and marketing

Milestone update:

[✅ Done] i. Establish partnerships with key supporters
[✅ Done 🔄 Changed] ii. Create content plan for following 6 months, release one podcast and two educational blogs
[✅ Done 🔄 Changed] iii. Run workshops for user experience, release one podcast and two educational blog
[✅ Done 🔄 Changed] iv. Collate and synthesise findings from user experience workshop and share with ecosystem by publishing findings, release one podcast and two educational blogs, plan Christmas content competition
[❌ Not Complete 🔄 Changed] v. Run Christmas content competition, plan new year grant giveaways. Optimise content distribution channels, release one podcast and two educational blogs
[✅ Done 🔄 Changed] vi. Release one podcast and two educational blogs, distribute grant giveaways, Web Monetization webinar
[✅ Done 🔄 Changed] vii. Release one podcast and two educational blogs, content creation & distribution webinar

Stats for our various channels:

Twitter posts - 237k impressions on Peerkat account, 72k on Vivid
LinkedIn posts - 6.5k impressions
YouTube stats - 1.6k impressions
Peerkat WM-related video views - 46k impressions
Vividiov.com company website visits (including Web Monetization blogs, podcast homepage and ux report) - 3.1k new users, 6.5k page views
Freemitization website visits - 187 sessions
Open source module downloads - total downloads (not unique) according to npm data: 271 for video ads module, 1744 for revenue sharing module

Other notes:

Podcast homepage
Greg talked at MozFest, Akita/Skittish hangout, Ballet Rising podcast, Benzinga Crypto Show (913 views)
Vivid and Peerkat social followings have grown to 1,655 for Peerkat Twitter followers, 120 Twitter followers and 84 LinkedIn followers for Vivid

4. User Experience Research Report

Milestone update:

[✅ Done] i. Secondary research and synthesise into themes to identify gaps in knowledge for primary research of target user groups.
[✅ Done] ii. Design primary research based on what we want to learn from secondary research using quantitative user feedback from MVP (survey) and qualitative (user interviews), to understand user acceptance and additional needs/features. Synthesise insight to deliver opportunities for the project team by personas.
[✅ Done] iii. Plan, design and conduct user tests for Web Monetization
[✅ Done] iv. Plan, design and conduct tests

UX Report
The five most important themes we took from the research were:
Most common theme – more Web Monetization Service Providers needed for ecosystem to thrive!
Web Monetization is a nascent technology and requires an increased engineering effort
Likewise, increasing the awareness and the marketing investment for Web Monetization should be a high priority
More flexibility for payment streaming controls and options such as tipping and donation tools are required by users Users really like the technology, however the entire ecosystem needs developing
The survey findings generally backed up our assumptions that we had held going into the GftW project. This has encouraged us further to keep testing and developing our ideas as we strive to create brilliant user experiences, and we are excited at the prospect of becoming a service provider.

What community support would benefit your project?

Visit the Freemitization site for a demo of our open source modules for Web Monetization Revenue Sharing and Freemium-style Video Ads. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss our Web Monetization modules/development further
Read the Web Monetization UX Report
Check out the JAM Podcast, including the recent GftW episode

What’s next?

We will press ahead with our plans to integrate an “Earn” feature into our mobile platform Peerkat to aid user retention and to commercialise this product.
Begin early testing of our Web Browser Extension where users will be able to earn crypto while surfing the web, please sign up to our mailing list on our website if you are interested in getting your hands on this first!
Continue research and refine UX design to enhance our Web Browser Extension and become a Web Monetization service provider.
Develop our concept of establishing a crypto learning website to join up the user journey between our mobile experience and web extension experience.
Please join us on our journey by following @vividiov on Twitter

Relevant links/resources

Vivid IoV Labs website
Freemitization website
Open source modules: Revenue Sharing and Freemium Video Ad serving
JAM Podcast Web Monetization Series, GftW episode
Web Monetization UX Report

JAM session 12: Grant for the Web spending $100m to make the internet a better place!

Ben Marshall — Mon, 17 May 2021 16:07:29 +0000

JAM session 12: Grant for the Web spending $100m to make the internet a better place!

Check out our final episode of our first season of the JAM Podcast, where Erika and Chris from Grant for the Web join Greg to discuss how the fund works, exciting projects, community engagement, next steps & more grants...

See the rest of our series on Web Monetization

The Web Monetization UX Report released by Vivid

Ben Marshall — Fri, 14 May 2021 07:37:40 +0000

Vivid IoV Labs are pleased to publish the Web Monetization UX Report, the research was conducted during Q1 2021 with support from Grant for the Web.

The report is intended to help the Web Monetization community understand their users needs and inform the development of the next generation of brilliant user-focused web monetised products and content.

Click here for the full report

Please check out the report and we would love to hear from you if you would like to add to the report with your own research or if you have general feedback on the findings.

5 Key Takeaways

Most common theme – more Web Monetization Service Providers needed for ecosystem to thrive!
Web Monetization is a nascent technology and requires an increased engineering effort
Likewise, increasing the awareness and the marketing investment for Web Monetization should be a high priority
More flexibility for payment streaming controls and options such as tipping and donation tools are required by users
Users really like the technology, however the entire ecosystem needs developing

Just A Meme Podcast (Second Batch)

Ben Marshall — Thu, 13 May 2021 17:14:11 +0000

The second batch of podcasts are live across YouTube, Web Monetized link, Anchor, Apple and Spotify:

JAM#8 Antonio from Kendraio

JAM#9 Uchi from AfricaHacks (and now Coil)

JAM#10 Joshua from Metagov

JAM#11 Janet and Sam from Widget

JAM #12 Grant for the Web team special

Erika and Chris will be joining Greg to conclude our Web Monetization series, the podcast is being recorded today and we will post it on here in the next few days.

It should be a great episode reflecting on the programme to date and looking forward to what Grant for the Web has in store in the future, be sure to check back soon for it…

Thank you!

Thanks to all of our great guests, thank you also to those who reached out or have been following the series, we appreciate the support and hope you continue to follow the Just A Meme pod in the future!

Web Monetization modules for revenue sharing and video ads published by Vivid IoV Labs

Ben Marshall — Fri, 07 May 2021 16:51:03 +0000

Freemitization – the combination of revenue sharing and freemium-style video advertising for Web Monetization – has been finalised and published by Vivid IoV Labs.

Our technical lead, Ike Iwumene, compiled the following video demo walkthroughs for each module:

Freemitization Video Ads

Connecting video or live streaming content to Web Monetisation, enabling freemium style ad-free video or live streaming for Coil users (and other future Web Monetization providers).

Freemitization Revenue Sharing

Pooling and revenue sharing for Web Monetization by adopting a probabilistic model for content revenue. This can be implemented by content creators for redistributing the streamed revenue to other users in the value chain such as collaborators, social sharers and moderators, incentivising the content engagement and discoverability for creators.

Feedback

If you have any feedback or would like to get in touch about these Web Monetization modules please comment below or you can message us via our feedback form.

Freemium x Web Monetization = Freemitization!

Ben Marshall — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 09:47:56 +0000

Project overview

Freemitization is a live streaming experiment targeting mass adoption by combining freemium business models and Web Monetization.

Project team

The startup formed from the winning team of UCL and Ripple’s Block-Sprint 2019. Vivid IoV Labs are focused on consumer-facing applications of micropayments and creating a more inclusive internet by leveraging web 3 technologies.

More about the team

What we are doing

Freemitization demo site - currently under construction! This is our dev site with our open source modules for freemium ux and revenue sharing for web monetized content.

Peerkat - our live streaming project, the video-on-demand version is accessible via the ThunderCore blockchain app.

Just A Meme - our podcast series is live and we have had some great chats with a bunch of brilliant builders and creators in the Grant for the Web community.

The Web Monetization UX Report (coming soon) - our own primary research and collating research from around the ecosystem to help inform the development of the next generation of brilliant user-focused web monetized products and content.

What community support would benefit your project?

We would be grateful for your support and involvement by 1) checking out our podcast series with a variety of fellow GftW grantees all about Web Monetization, 2) completing our Web Monetization Survey if you are a Coil user, 3) giving us a follow on Twitter. Thank you!

Check out our podcast
Complete the Web Monetization Survey
Follow us on Twitter

Link Round Up!

Company Website
JAM Podcast
The Web Monetization Survey
GftW Mid-Term Grant Report

Highlight other projects

Please check out a few of our friends!..

Casey Herd
Hessel at the Free Music Archive
Benny - print on demand income
Adam at gFam

The Web Monetization Survey

Ben Marshall — Sat, 27 Feb 2021 17:34:05 +0000

Thanks very much to everybody who has got involved and completed the Web Monetization Survey - for those who have not yet or missed the first posts about it, we would be grateful if you could please take part in our survey via the link below:

The Web Monetization Survey

This will become extremely useful research for the Web Monetization community and ecosystem of projects to learn from the findings. We hope it will help inform the development of the next generation of brilliant user-focused web monetized products and content.

The results will be collated and published by Vivid IoV Labs at our website and shared via the relevant channels with the support of the Grant for the Web.

The Web Monetization Survey - get involved!

Ben Marshall — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 18:06:10 +0000

Calling all Web Monetization Users!

Please help by completing the Web Monetization Survey…

As part of our project we are conducting a user experience survey on behalf of the community to find out more about Web Monetization Users and what they really want.

The results will be collated and published by Vivid IoV Labs at our website and shared via the relevant channels with the support of the Grant for the Web.

Please help the community by completing the survey at the link below and sharing the survey with other Web Monetization Users:

The Web Monetization Survey

We will also be collating secondary research from fellow grantees and the wider ecosystem. Stay tuned for more info on this or get in touch if you want to contribute to the Web Monetization UX Report. Thank you!

Be a guest on our podcast - Web Monetization series!

Ben Marshall — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 13:07:46 +0000

Hi all

We have been busy recording the first episodes of our podcast series dedicated to Web Monetization. We've have had some great guests on already, would love to hear from more community members who would like to take the opportunity to talk about their projects.

If you are interested, please either complete the short form at https://www.vividiov.com/podcast or contact me on here.

Once tidied up, we will be releasing the episodes on various platforms including this website.

Thanks!

Ben - Vivid IoV Labs

The Interledger Community 🌱: Ben Marshall

JAM session 13: Mat from MG.Social on building ad free social media business models, token launches and more

A bonus JAM episode! Mat joined us from MG.Social – an ad free social network with blockchain monetization powered by Coil and Xumm.

See the rest of our series on Web Monetization

Looking for Dev Support?

Developer support & consultancy available at Vivid IoV Labs

Freemitization — Grant Report #2 (Final)

Progress on objectives

Key activities

1. Web Monetization

2. Peerkat Platform

3. Community and marketing

4. User Experience Research Report

What community support would benefit your project?

What’s next?

Relevant links/resources

JAM session 12: Grant for the Web spending $100m to make the internet a better place!

JAM session 12: Grant for the Web spending $100m to make the internet a better place!

See the rest of our series on Web Monetization

The Web Monetization UX Report released by Vivid

Vivid IoV Labs are pleased to publish the Web Monetization UX Report, the research was conducted during Q1 2021 with support from Grant for the Web.

Click here for the full report

5 Key Takeaways

Just A Meme Podcast (Second Batch)

The second batch of podcasts are live across YouTube, Web Monetized link, Anchor, Apple and Spotify:

JAM#8 Antonio from Kendraio

JAM#9 Uchi from AfricaHacks (and now Coil)

JAM#10 Joshua from Metagov

JAM#11 Janet and Sam from Widget

JAM #12 Grant for the Web team special

Thank you!

Web Monetization modules for revenue sharing and video ads published by Vivid IoV Labs

Freemitization – the combination of revenue sharing and freemium-style video advertising for Web Monetization – has been finalised and published by Vivid IoV Labs.

Freemitization Video Ads

Freemitization Revenue Sharing

Related Links

Feedback

Freemium x Web Monetization = Freemitization!

Project overview

Project team

What we are doing

What community support would benefit your project?

Link Round Up!

Highlight other projects

The Web Monetization Survey

The Web Monetization Survey - get involved!

Be a guest on our podcast - Web Monetization series!