'On Line Opinion' - the next iteration

We need to expand what we are doing. There are still many things out there that the net can do for open discussion and interaction with politicians that it isn’t. That means a site redesign with better, more efficient and more open architecture with some new features.

Not only will we be talking to readers about this, but we will be looking to raise some money to do it. I have a working budget of $30,000 in mind. We envisage raising the money from readers and other organisations.

Part of our fundraising will include regenerating our membership program. With our combination of publishing and research there is a lot that we can offer other organisations in a variety of fields.

We are also looking at ways of increasing the advertising revenue. We have a unique audience which should be valuable to people or organisations who want to get to people who are politically active. At the moment we get most of our advertising via advertising agencies, but that market doesn’t seem to properly value our audience.

So we are looking to source advertisers directly.

And we are also looking for more paying gigs. We do build very good websites, and we get paid for our research from time to time. An increase in this business would help to put us on a sounder footing.

What will this mean to you as reader? Very little in the short-term. We will still publish our six or so articles a day and they will come from as diverse sources as possible and give you real information.

But over the long term a lot of things are going to change. Being forced to live within our means is actually incredibly invigorating. I’ve revisited ideas that I haven’t looked at for years.

On Line Opinion was extraordinarily visionary when it first appeared, a few months before Crikey. There are dangers in being the first mover.

But now the Internet era has well and truly arrived, and some of the vision that had to be put to one side in the interests of longevity can now be dusted off and paraded publicly.

In this new political and technological paradigm, the times should suit us more than they have.