I guess the question then is, what do we mean exactly when we say that part of the collective could be a ‘media’ collective? The tech side feels fairly clear, the purpose being to build and maintain a platform. But media is massive and could look like so many different types of work, relationship dynamics and outcomes. 

The more I think about the idea of a ‘split’, the less sense it makes to me. Since everyone is oversaturated with information now, I think every tech project or service needs (as well as governance/admin/finance stuff) a ‘marketing’ team to gain any traction, and I think it’s still true, maybe even more true for a project focused on community and collective benefits rather than individualistic ones. Maybe we can call that task ‘community organising’ rather than ‘marketing’, and maybe when I have talked about ‘the media side’, that’s kind of what I have meant?

If we were to compare this project to something like 3CR, is it like the tech side of it is the project of setting up a radio station for broadcast, and then the media side is everything else - facilitating people who want to make radio shows to do that by providing broadcast and recording equipment and distribution channels - radio and online. And of course they have a third side which is governance and finances.

I think the process of working on this project has got me pretty excited about making media, but when I think about it more I think it’s probably better for the Radical Directory project to be more oriented towards providing a platform for creation and distribution: internally that means tech, governance and finances; externally it means convincing our friends to try it out, relationships and partnerships, skill sharing and education about media stuff - anything it takes to facilitate people to create the content they want to make on RD. First up/most importantly, descriptions about what they do, what they are working on, and what events they are planning.

I imagine that, a bit like 3CR, once the tech (and governance/financial) stuff is set up, the real work will begin - a lot of experimentation, feedback when it comes to how people actually use the thing. Maybe we will find we need to be more hands on, or maybe people will just grab it and run. We can’t know that yet!