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Concept


Introduction
Iter8r is a social bookmarking website that enables users to:
  • Post interesting links
  • Vote on posted articles
  • Share the profits

Profit-sharing, user participation, charitable donations, cooperative support of Free Software and Free Culture Projects and transition to "non-loss" cooperative are the distinguishing features of Iter8r.


Community Profit Sharing
All social bookmarking sites award points to their users for their activity on the site. Most, if not all, of the social bookmarking sites generate revenue from online advertising. The users themselves receive no financial benefits for the content they post and help to filter.

Iter8r aims to change this and engage in significant profit sharing with qualified users of its service.

Initial Ratio
Initially profits will be shared as follows:
Recipient Percentage
Founders32%
Free Software Projects10%
User Community58%

Transition Ratio
The initial ratio is a reflection of the fact that the founders have contributed more to the company in its initial stages. As time goes by, the community's contribution is expected to outweigh that of the founders. Therefore, once the company acquires critical mass (defined by the trigger event), more of the profits will be transferred to the community. Each year after the trigger event, the owners' share of the profit reduces by 4% and the community's share increases by the same amount.

Trigger Event
After Iter8r acquires 80,000 qualified (i.e., registered-and-validated US-based) users, each year the owners' share of the profits reduces as described above. Thus 8 years after the trigger event, the owners' share of the profits reduces to 0.

Cooperative Ratio
When the transition is complete, the profit sharing ratio will be as follows:
Recipient Percentage
Founders0%
Free Software Projects10%
User Community90%


True Collaborative Filtering
Iter8r aims to improve quality and diversity by employing collaborative filtering of submitted content. Collaborative filtering succeeds if the content editors function in a truly independent manner (i.e., without colluding via external channels). To achieve this, Iter8r uses "Select Lists" of content submitted for review by its users. A given Select List is unique to a particular user for a particular interval of time.

Select List-based voting improves the quality of the submitted content. Consequently, users who work with Select Lists receive significantly larger payments for their efforts as compared to users who don't.


Financial Disclosure
Iter8r will regularly make available to the public at large, its balance sheet, its cash flow statement and other financial documents.


Transparent and Open Corporate Governance
Although user communities are central to all social bookmarking sites, the users themselves have little or no say in the administration of the sites or the companies that manage those sites.

Iter8r will employ a cooperative approach to the running of the company and engage the user community in decision making at multiple levels.


Conversion to Cooperative
8 years after the trigger event, the company will be converted to a non-loss cooperative. The company will then be managed by a board elected by its users and developers.


Commitment to Free Software
The Free Software and Free Culture Community has made extraordinary contributions in the areas of Technology and Freedom.

We want to help in our own small way. So Iter8r commits to donating 10% of its profits to existing or new Free, Open Source Software and Free Culture Projects.


Founders
Iter8r Inc. was founded in 2009 by Harish Kulkarni and Pandu Rao. The stated objective of the company is to engage with users in an equitable manner.