I’m a free thinker… although most of the time I shut up, and so far there has not been much “soapboxing” on this blog

I am an atheist but I still believe a few things (in no particular order, what I could think of just now)
* the wonder for life and the universe
* the value and dignity of people, at all ages and in all cultures
* the value of education, knowledge and skills, and that we need to try to excel and we need to try to help others develop and excel in what makes them feel fulfilled
* the value of imagination and creativity, and what it does for the human spirit and society
* the value of craft and skill, and a belief that they are undervalued in our day and age
* the value of originality and diversity, non comformism and challenging received ideas
* a belief that people can organise and take care of themselves if just given the space and opportunity (although that can take time)
* a strong rejection of the idea that injustice and inequality are a normal thing and that it would cost societe too dearly to do anything about it

One thing that strikes me over and over is how it takes so little to allow people to interact and empower themselves… and so little to treat them like numbers and shut them off. I believe that at some level people are able to empower themselves, organise themselves, but that a lot of things in modern life combine to try to keep up distracted, dizzy, upset about non-news that hide the real issues, manipulated and disenfranchised.
Now I dont mean there’s a conspiracy, I think it just happened over time… but this state of affairs does benefit a lot of people.

So yes, I get really annoyed at all these things in the world that try to prevent us from thinking for ourselves, feed us belief and opinion and trying to prevent us from questioning and applying critical thought… As a result I’m a bit of a debater and I like playing devil’s advocate, because no opinion is ever 100% right, and forcing people to clarify their thinking and justify their ideas is always good… I especially like challenging common platitudes, and received opinions, the kind of things people say without ever thinking about it, the thoughts we were “fed” to think.

And I get really wound up when I see all the things in the world today which seem to be dedicated to suppressing people’s curiosity and their ability to learn and question, create and think for themselves… all the messages out there dumbing people down, especially children and young people, telling us the world is too complicated for peons like us, leave it to the technocrats, culture is too high for normal people, leave it to the specialist… Well I am a technocrat and you know what, rocket science is not *that* complicated…

First, as I have said here and elsewhere before, I love blipfoto.

It is a very simple but beautifully done photoblog, or photo diary. You can only post 1 image a day (but no pressure to do it every day). The community is friendly, encouraging, and creative. If you are looking for a way to encourage yourself to take more pictures more regularly, you really owe it to yourself to check blip out. It certainly did that for me, to incredible degrees at times. I lost it over December but fully expecting to go back.

The site has been free for 2 years. But like every site out there, they have costs, and need to start covering those costs.

They are not adding ads, they are adding premium memberships, with improved features and additional bonuses (I suspect these will be special discounts, perhaps also ways to show/export your blog but probably a lot of premium information, courses etc. But I am just guessing). But they are doing something else that is very much in the spirit of the community created around the site: they are creating special supporting founder memberships:

(from the blog
you’re going to have a never-to-be-repeated opportunity to show your appreciation for everything Blipfoto has done so far, give us a kick-start for 2009 and stake your place in history with an exclusive Blipfoto Founding Membership.

For £40, you’ll receive:

- 18 months full membership, starting when we introduce our membership option
- an exclusive founding member’s icon, which will stay with you forever
- a specially produced founding member’s enamel badge
- 10% discount on all future Blipfoto purchases, including membership fees

As if that wasn’t enough, when you take out your Founding Membership, you’ll have an opportunity to pay a little extra and lay your hands on a set of 200 personalised Founding Member Blipcards. Again, this is an exclusive, one-off print run which will never be available again.

Why do I think this is so clever? Note that apart from a few token trinkets, you have no idea what the membership features will be. They are not selling the premium features, they will have plenty of time to do this later. No, they are appealing to their core users, the ones who love the service and would pay for it as it is (even though the service as it is will always remain free). They are saying “if you like us, trust us, and fund the time we are spending creating the next level”. I think this is an extremely open and modern way to fund an application, and a very courageous approach.

It works for me.

Even though I have no income at the moment I will become a founding member of blipfoto, because I have received real value from the site and want to support its team to do more of the same. I am not doing it for the badge or pin, I am doing it to support the site. I want to see what it can become, and am willing to chip in to make sure it gets the chance to get there (note that this is the same reason I paid for lwa, 72photos, aviary and others, and I would do the same for a site like bookmooch or friendfeed).