2. www.we-magazine.net

4. > we observes and leads the way into a partcipatory future. > we means emergent net culture.
> we is positively disruptive. > we is an attitude. > we means sharing. > we means
collaboration. > we believes in collective intelligence. > we means holistic and network
thinking. > we is smart because of the network of “Yous” WE is more than you & I. > we
means responsibility. > we doesn’t mean control. > we means a real change in power. > we
doesn’t mean copyright but creative commons. > we is diversity and harmony. > we means
partnership. > we connects people, ideas and thoughts around the globe. > we is authentic,
humane, creative. > we believes in the freedom of speech and ideas. > we means openness and
transparency. > we points to potential uses of social media. > we detects trends. > we reflects
and discusses the experiences, related to social media. > we describes the transformative nature
of social media in economy, society and culture. > we is open to authors around the globe. >
we engages into the current and future developments driven by social media. > we embraces
cultural diversity. > we reflects and discusses the experiences, related to social media. > we
describes the transformative nature of social media in economy, society and culture. > we is open
to authors around the globe.
we_manifesto – www.we-magazine.net

5. > 10 Questions & Answers
for a better understanding of WE?
> What is the idea behind WE?
> Where did the inspiration come from?
> What is the goal for WE?
> Who is the audience?
> Why a quarterly magazine?
> Why in english?
> The ”holy gra i l“ – Where does the money
come from?
> Are there any web publications from
which WE drew inspiration?
> Who are the competitors?
> How will WE decide if this endeavour
has been a success?

6. 1_What is the idea behind WE?
We dedicated WE to the empowerment of many given
to us by the Internet.
We think that the rise of the Internet has changed and will
change our idea of WE. WE in culture, WE in society, WE
in business, WE in religion, WE in education ... in many,
many fields.
WE will be more important than ever before.

7. 2_Where did the inspiration come from?
I got my first idea about ‘we-magazine’ in February, 2008,
at the DIY Video Summit in Los Angeles which Henry
Jenkins was also attending. He called his blog post on the
Summit “From youtube to wetube”.
During those two eventful days it gradually dawned on me
what enormous power the Internet has for shaping our
understanding of “we.” I realised what “we” are capable
of: Moving and shaking in the age of the World Wide
Web. A range of opportunities come into sight only
matched in scale by the challenges they bring with them.

8. 3_What is the goal for WE?
We are convinced that the Internet has the power to
democratize the world – or should I better say to make the
world a better place! We have the ability to connect to
each other, to hear each other and to listen to each other.
All these little ”WEs“ can grow and become a bigger and
more powerful WE – if we care!
We never had this chance before! So we are really at a
hinge of global history! But we are only at the begining
of this process and we need all we can muster to manage
safe passage.
So we defined the goal of WE to provide our audience
with examples, projects, ideas and cases which make the
world a better place!

9. 4_Who is the audience?
Our audience lives mostly in the digital world. Its interna-
tional and based all over the globe. WE focuses on those
people who are using the internet as a ”natural tool“ and
who already got a glue of its potential.
Its potential in the way how we are working together, how
we are communicating and collaborating, how we share,
how we are getting heard, how we spread content we
want to be published, how we innovate and create
meaningful projects.
No matter if they are working in NGOs, universities, for
profit organization or if they are self-employed.

10. 4_1 WE has reached into 129 countries in September 2008

11. 5_Why a quarterly magazine?
We simply doesn’t has the manpower and the money
running a monthly magazine.
A quarterly gives us enough time to find new projects, to
speak to new people, reflect on the feedback we receive
and gives us the freedom to let the idea grow more slowly.
We regulary update our blog.

12. 6_Why in english?
All three of us are German. So why do we publish in english?
If you want to be international you can’t publish in
German! So in the first step we published in english. Our
goal is definitely to have translations in spanish, chinese
and arabic as well!

13. 7_The ”holy grail“ – Where does the money come from?
We do believe that people are NOT willing to pay for content on the
internet. Content for free is the overall motto. So we built our business
model on advertising. The more the readers the higher the price. So we
are using the viral effects the Internet gives us. We provide all the content
as HTML for free plus we offer a free PDF download (with Vol. 2). Only the
print on demand version on lulu.com is for sale. Advertising is available
in the PDF and in the on demand print version. There is no advertising on
the web!
We is a cross-media effort from the very outset. We think that this kind of
approach comes closest to the we-idea and the spirit of the Internet.
And we share our revenue with our authors! Meaning if WE makes money,
the authors will make money. We don’t pay them for writing the article, we
let them participate on the success.

14. 8_Are there any web publications from which WE drew inspiration?
There is one magazine – jpeg magazine in San Francisco –
which drew my attention. Their business model is quite
unique and their concept of user generated concept seems
to work. jpeg magazine is a very good example that little
companies can create value and revenue over the internet
with a magazine – if you understand well enough its
shallows.

15. 9_Who are the competitors?
Two years ago I was traveling with Marvin Minsky in Italy and Germany.
I asked him for the motto of his live and he answered: ”Don’t compete!
Don’t do anything anyone else can do!“ It took me a while to understand
the dimension of his statement, but following the milestones in his live
you definitely could see he was following his track: whenever he found
somebody who was working in the same field as he – he switched! Doing
something what somebody else could do – Minsky considered it as a waste
of time!
Having experienced this, I would say: WE don’t compete, WE simply does
something nobody else can do. Only WE can! Yes WE can!

16. 10_How will WE decide if this endeavour has been a success?
Success can be measured in many ways – not only money
wise, even though money is important.
I would consider WE being successful if
> our authors receive feedback for their articles
> the magazine is linked all over the internet
> the magazine is spread all over the internet
> people read it
> articles start a fruitful discourse e.g. in the comment
section of our blog
> people ask us how they can support WE
WE simply becomes a WE!

17. Examples of WEs

18. Ethan Zuckerman
The World is Talking. We is Listening!
Global Voices Online
Photo by Joi Ito · http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.de
We l l, I think the first thing we have to do is recognize that the co nve r s ation has to
happen. I think one of the problems we have is a lot of the tools that we are building I think one of the
on the Inte rnet are ve ry good at similarity. So for instance, what has become ve ry interesting things that’s
popular in recent years are sort of recommendation engines that try to find content happening at this moment
based on other co n tent that yo u ’ve liked. But these engines, if you are not ca refu l, end in time is that we have
up giving you recommendations from the same group of people all the time. I think the ability to be part of many
different tribes at the
once yo u ’ve recognized that one of the dangers of the Inte rnet is that you keep hea ri n g
same time.
from similar people over and over and over again, then you can try to take steps to
change who you are listening to and paying attention to.
P roj e cts like the one that I have been running for the last three years or so, Global
Voices, try to give you access to voices that you unlikely hear. Most people in North
America don’t hear many voices coming out of China. We hear a lot about China. But
we don’t hear a lot of Chinese voices. So by taking people in China who are writing
online, translating that content into English and putting in online, we are giving you
an opportunity to hear some different voices. But there is a real problem here. Le s s
and less it’s not a supply problem anymore, it’s a demand problem. Historically, content
from people in other co u n t ries was in ve ry short supply. You had to get it thro u g h
television news. You had to wait for the local newspaper to publish it. Now we have
more than a hundred million people publishing online on a daily basis. The question
is: Do you pay attention to it? And it becomes a very personal challenge. Who do you
want to be part of that ”We“ that you’re talking about? If you want ”We“ to be people
who share the same sentiments as you, share the same background as you, the Inte rn e t
makes that very ea sy ri g ht now. If you want that ”We“ to be broader, the Inte rnet makes
that possible but you have to take the effort to broaden the ”We“. www.ethanzuckerman.com

19. Line Hadsbjerg
We care: Corporate Social Responsibilty
www.betterplace.org
Our growing, global interconnectedness via the internet is a great opportunity, both
for corporations, their employees and the public. ”WE“ can make a difference. ”WE“
can change the world to the better.
Understandably, corporate giving is deeply linked to co m m u n i cation. The cynics will say
t h at CSR initiat i ves are nothing more than misleading presentations, like the pretty
g reen flower logo outside BP petrol stations. Milton Friedman, grandfather of
m o n e t a rism, and his famous 1970’s article in The New York Times Magazine, ”The Social
Responsibility of Business is to increase Profits“, wrote that ‘the one and only soci a l
responsibility of business, is to increase profits for shareholders’.
We can help create a
win-win-situation when
it comes to Corporate Social
Respondibility
that really makes a
difference.
www.betterplace.org

20. Stephen Downes
Ten Futures
Photo by moqub · http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.de
There will, of course, be a large-scale industry in the psychology of cyborgs.
Can a person be a ship and not become insane? How do we keep such a
person occupied? Several of the technologies outlined above – like holoselves,
for example, will be crucial.
Metaphor will become reality – and it will become a major ethical issue – and
a human right – to know one’s actual situation.
The global mind
will to a large
degree
be inscrutable.

21. Joichi Ito
You Don’t Have to Ask we for Permission –
Creative Commons
Photo by DNSF David Newman · http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.de
The way that copyright is used today is used to reserve all ri g hts. So the typica l ly under-
copyright law if you scribble something on a piece of paper, you automatically have a
copyright to that. But on the web, when you want to be very quick and you don’t want
each person asking permission, what you need to do is to mark your work with the
permissions yo u ’re granting, which doesn’t have to be all permissions. So with Creat i ve
Commons there are ce rtain licenses that don’t allow derivative works, some don’t allow
commercial use, and so forth. But the idea is that you want to make it very clear what
copyrights you have.
The bigger part is that it’s better for society if you share because yo u ’re creating a
commons. Like educational re s o u rce s, many people should share them and people
The open Internet
should work together because it helps education globally. And so we are pushing
not only is an important
educators not to use restrictive licenses but to share as much as possible. business thing, I think it’s
the pillar for democracy.
Or I should better say the
pillar for an open society
in the 21st century.
http://joi.ito.com/

22. Jonathan Imme
we – DIGITAL_NATIVES >
Photo by Sim Sullen · http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.de
We Digital Natives thus expect to be given the opportunity and a platform to express
our opinions and recommendations, not just by our teachers and professors, but also We digital natives expect
by our city councilors, by our religious communities, by our politicians, by our bosses to receive information and
and our team leaders. And, at the same time, we need to be assured that this dialog is know-how at near-Google speeds
being taken seri o u s ly Then again, if these platforms and feedback channels are not
. in the workplace, both from
gra n ted us by the respective persons or institutions themselves, then we will make use our co-workers and from
the company’s
of third-party platforms – or, where necessary, we will set up our own.
own information systems.
ht t p: //twitter. co m /d e rj o n athan

23. Co n t a ct: whois verlag
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69239 Necka r h a u s e n
phone +49 6229 93 07 06
fax +49 6229 93 07 18
we@we-magazine.net
www.we-magazine.net