A Few Bytes About Social Purpose Reports
One requirement of being a SPC (Social Purpose Corporation) in WA is that a social purpose report must be made freely available to the public every year. Such reports are fairly loose in format. They must include a discussion of the social purpose, and otherwise are fairly open to the company including what it feels relevant. Suggestions include things like objectives met and planned, measurements, and similar.
This post is FiveBits' ongoing social purpose report. Writing this called on us to think through and report out to all of you, who are duly our stakeholders and readers, while not being over-burdensome to writers or readers. We hope you enjoyed it and will check in with any questions and comments!
If you would like to know more about this requirement, here are a few resources we found helpful:
- http://www.startuplawblog.com/2013/05/29/social-purpose-corporations-reports/ - This page was particularly helpful in codifying details, and this site has a lot of good discussions for startups.
- http://blog.movingworlds.org/spc-annual-report-2013/ - Nice example report and interesting SPC
- http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=23B.25&full=true#23B.25.150 - Official RCW outlining requirements
Why is 5Bits an SPC? Check out this post to read more: https://steemit.com/technology/@fivebits/why-is-fivebits-a-social-purpose-corporation
Our Social Purpose
FiveBits’ founders see growing issues with unemployment and underemployment. People with great potential, skills and talent are unable to find work that suits. At the same time, there is a global trend towards unnatural, community and free market divorced wealth consolidation. Power bases which do not allow for the natural spread and share of opportunities are being cemented, further amplifying the waste of resourceful humans.
Alongside this is a disparity between what is created and what consumers wish to be created. What makes it to market all the way through opportunities afforded is largely being driven from the top down… an approach that not only lacks dynamism, but also does not support the citizenry as well as alternative approaches have the potential to do.
These trends and results are particularly at odds with our world today. Readily available technologies can offer unparalleled opportunities for individuals to drive their own incomes and market choices-- to stop depending on top-down efforts to meet their wants and needs.
We look for the roots of things getting in the way of that.
What can we do and help others do to promote obsoleting what is with better, for the people & by the people?
Within its sphere, FiveBits aims to provide thoughtfully decentralized approaches to help every person leverage new technologies to:
- openly gather and share ideas
- bring to life both highly marketable items and those with more discreet consumer bases
- and harness self-driven and supported income building opportunities.
In essence, FiveBits aims to partner in helping people help themselves.
As we grow, our work will touch the lives of computer users anywhere and everywhere. We will work to decentralize to revolutionize. We will partner with “find-a-need, fill-a-need”‘ers ready to see their ideas for users’ five bits and more become reality!
Material Social Purpose Actions
| Year | Synopsis | Content Measurements | Crowd Related |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Our company just began its life this year, and began its journey towards first product release. In 2014, our activities were greatly groundwork related, in all areas. This included the work towards release of our blogs. Among other goals, these are intended to help in communication, recruiting, and education; all of which will help support our social purpose statement. 3 blogs released, including discussions of current events and alternative social approaches, open source tools, technological education, and decentralization content. | Options researched, implementation planned per audience building | Plans laid out for crowd-centric partnering and pipeline streamlining |
| 2015 | We focused on our first product release. We intended that to be our awesome social game, Vox Popular. However, with Unity's protocol switch from NPAPI to WebGL, we were unable to release. Instead, at the end of the year, we began a major pivot to Chordisi, a super user centered productivity tool set. We continued work on our blogs and community engagement. We used our tools for communication, recruiting, and education; all of which will help support our social purpose statement. Regular blog content released for each blog | same | same |
| 2016 | 2016 was largely dedicated to work on the Chordisi suite and related opportunities research. Vox Popular blog on hold, regular content on other two blogs | same | same |
| 2017 | As a bootstrapped company, we put things on pause this year to focus on raising more personal capital. Blogs were retired for this year. Blogging and other media will be revisited after first full beta product release | same | same |
Material Actions Notes
- Educational and tool based content. We have officially released three blogs that we see having a place in our social purpose plans. All three had regular content released, including already released open source tools and technological education content. We view these efforts as integral to future plans, including crowd partnership building. We will continue content releases with a new platform and marketing plan after our first major beta release.
- Measurements. Going forward, as time allows and audience builds, we will be implementing measurement tools and tracking usage metrics on materials put out through our media platforms. We will also be engaging with our reader base via surveys and similar to help them help us tailor material to their wants. As part of our strong commitment to user data usage clarity and protection, any such tools will be made clear to site users. Where feasible, they will be hosted by FiveBits, SPC (like Matomo) rather than relying on an external toolset (like Google Analytics.)
- Crowd partnerships. With each of our products planned to date, we have sketched details to incorporate crowd centric partnerships and opportunity streamlining pipelines. When we are ready to phase these in, in each product, we intend for these intelligently decentralized, opportunity bolstering activities to form the strongest directed push towards supporting our social purpose goals.