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urban75 - urban life on the web

Posted on November 18th, 2007 in e-zines, Sport related, Forums, Gaming by admin

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Quite often it is the non-commercial enterprises that become the really innovative and exciting websites, and the urban75 e-zine has become one of the most popular e-zines on the web, with games, photos, an events diary, information, articles, reports, but most of all, its piece de resistance – its bulletin boards, where its aficionados simply refer to it as “urban”.

Founded in 1995 in Brixton, England, (for those of you that don’t know, Brixton is part of London, south of the River Thames), the site remains resolutely unmonetised, being strictly non-profit, with no banners, no tie-ins, and no ads. The photos are a real treat – there are galleries depicting Brixton, London, New York, Chicago, Brighton, and Wales, as well as various 360º panoramas and even photography tutorials!

The site features loads of just-for-fun games, made by various web designers, and it is made abundantly clear that many of the games are pointless and have no meaning, such as “The Dot Clicking Game” and “The Curious Thingy” – a bit like “Mornington Crescent”.

Football regularly features on the site, but you certainly don’t need to be a footie fan to enjoy it. (For those of you across the Pond, I’m talking about soccer).

The bulletin boards have grown into a highly popular community, with around 33,000 registered members, although only a fraction of these are active posters. At present, there are an impressive quarter of a million page impressions each day, and about 5,000 new posts daily.

Yours truly has been contributing much of late, due to a bit of software development work. The advice you get there is great – as well as sorting out my programming problem, I have received advice about gardening, seen photos of people’s pets, discussed food, pubs, music, had a laugh and a joke. The boards are managed by a team of sensible moderators, so things don’t get out of hand, and despite being London based, the forum has a very international dimension. Urban definitely has its own inimitable sense of humour and its own culture, and if that’s not enough, there are offline nights in London where you can meet other urbanites.

Football club ownership for the millions, not just the millionaires

Posted on November 11th, 2007 in Sport related, Internet Startups by admin

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There’s nothing like the internet for getting people together, and there’s nothing like football for bringing people together either. Combine the two, and you’ve got MyFootballClub.co.uk, which was launched earlier this year, with the main intention of getting enough football fans signed up, at a cost of £35 each, to buy an English football club. (By the way, for those of you across the Pond, I’m talking about soccer). Thus far, around 50,000 members have paid up, (thirty five quid is about $72), and this has created a fund of about 1.3 million pounds. The site has happily announced that a deal has been agreed with Ebbsfleet United, a minor English football club, for US$1.45 million. The membership will own the club, vote on team selection, decide which players to buy and sell and, hopefully, guide the club up the leagues.

This great new venture has been set up by none other than former football journalist Will Brooks, and it is probably the first time in football history that fans have had the opportunity to buy and take control of a professional football club – both on and off the pitch. Every MyFootballClub member is going to have an equal say in team selection, player transfers and the running of the club, with decisions being made via an online private forum and voting system.

The new site highlights the fact that the internet opens up the possibility of organisations being democratically run by large numbers of members in a way that would not have been possible previously, allowing daily contact between people living miles apart, indeed scattered all over the globe. Online forums allow everyone to have their say, and website software allows large numbers of people to vote easily on crucial issues, and for those votes to be quickly counted.

So it will be interesting to see how well this idea works, and the outcome of this particular venture could point the way to future online enterprises dealing not just with football, but a myriad of possibilities in terms of co-operative company ownership, and online democratic decision making.