More Social, Less Media
Perhaps the question I get asked the most when talking about Beacon is: “How is this any different from Facebook?”
In short, the difference is in intention and design. Though both platforms offer similar services, they differ in their primary mission. And this difference directly affects user experience in important ways.
Before all else, Facebook is a business; its goal is to make money through offering a huge, captivating social media network. Beacon, on the other hand, is a non-profit; our goal is to be a useful tool for connection between people.
As we design the Beacon network, we take into account three key elements that exist amongst empowered individuals and strong communities: awareness, organization, and action.
Awareness - A Window to your World: Our intuitive, peer-to-peer curated map allows you to explore pages and initiatives of all kinds. Customizable communication and notification channels keep you in the loop and up to date on what you choose is important.
Organization - A Tool in Hand: Create or join initiatives with specific calls to action. Our user-dashboard allows you to offer and seek resources and services; collaborate with other users; and give, gather or direct all kinds of support for the causes you care about.
Action - A Doorway to Your Communities: Communicate with friends, neighbors, and allies in real-time. Private and public group chat and forums allow for both strategizing and implementation of direct action and mutual aid. A straight-forward notification log keeps users in control of updates, so they can be alerted as soon as their support is needed.
Facebook, and some other platforms besides, offer many of these functions to some extent, but few, if any, offer all. In most cases the design is stunted or swayed to favor monetization, so what could have been a simple tool becomes a system for making money.
I grew up on comic books, video games, and sci-fi stories with characters who had tools so similar to what our modern smart-phones and devices have become. But the heroes of those stories never had to watch an ad or navigate an algorithm to access their device’s full potential.
Beacon takes the best that technology has to offer us, and combines it into a simplified, powerful toolkit that any 21st century person ought to have at their disposal. And with our model of stewardship, and our commitment to people and planet over profits, we know we can create a platform that serves communities for generations to come.
