True Fans Status

by Marcin Jakubowski

We have begun the True Fans program in 2009 - see [original blog post http://blog.opensourceecology.org/2009/01/towards-1000-global-villages-factor-e-live-distillations-part-1/]. This is based on Kevin Kelly's 1000 True Fans concept. This concept is: cultural creatives fund their difficult-to-monetize-work via the support of a crowd of people where each person contributes a small amount. So I started the True Fans in 2009 - with donations of $10/month for 24 months, when we were running on a budget of $2,000 per month, as I was committed to this full time and had no revenue streams outside of donations.

In 2010, we increased donation options from $10 to include $20, $30, $50, and $100. By the time of the TED Talk in 2011, we had about 200 subscribers, and currently, we have about 500 (if counting as "True Fansships", ie, units of $10. We now have about 7 subscribers at the $100 level, plus others at the other amounts, with the majority at the $10 level. As we went towards the end of 2012, our True Fans numbers were no longer climbing exponentially. I attribute this to our growing pains, and possibly to the fact that we have gotten significant funding from other sources, such as $360k from the Shuttleworth Foundation, which supports open projects.

I still think that the True Fans program fills a need for many to contribute a small amount if they cannot help in other ways, and we believe that this is a great investment for people to make. Therefore, OSE leadership thinks that the program is worth continuing as part of a diversified revenue strategy. If managed properly, the program can grow significantly. Current needs are:

1. A manager to communicate with the True Fans and to provide regular updates to True Fans
2. A social network or platform for True Fans, where a synergy of support and inspiration is created. One initiative is shown at True Fans Platform Log.
3. There is an initiative on the OSE App that we are considering.