Puny Little Ants

Community

We may pretend not to at times, but we as humans thrive on community. We choose to live in small groups of houses, in towns or cities made up of larger groups of houses. We may not converse regularly with our neighbours, or the people across the street from us; but subconsciously we find comfort in togetherness. Why then, when you look at traditional social media, does the image painted cast such a dull light on connectivity and togetherness? Communities are fundamental to our creative growth, both through praise and criticism. Yet we’ve chosen to invest our time and resources into platforms that thrive on the individual, rather than the team.

Creators are never fully satisfied. If you look at your peers, or up at the people that you admire, they won’t be content. They will simply be pushing their own standards higher and higher. The bar we set ourselves continues to rise as we accomplish more, down to our own personal motivation; but also that of our peers and the communities that we’ve chosen to surround ourselves by. This level of drive and expectation can be extremely demanding when working independently. You may find yourself comparing your own personal life to the image of how someone else has chosen to portray theirs — what does this collectively work towards? Social media can be a very isolated and shallow place, it’s easy to get caught up trying to market yourself and your life to show your worth on a platform. Communities, there to support and inspire, will combat these themes by offering relevant feedback and support at different points of the creative journey. It’s one of the reasons that daisie could genuinely benefit people; we have the ability to connect creators in a way that before was unfocused, unfiltered — now, we can provide our people with the tools they actually need to learn, share and build contacts; enabling them to find the support they need to raise their own standards.

The core of daisie is in the hands of the people that use it, the content that’s being uploaded, the connections being made, the feedback given, experience shared, work created — Our community is fundamental to the future of the app, as well as the present. We are creating a playground for collaboration, somewhere creative ideas are safe to be explored, developed and understood; for all ages, all regions, all nationalities. Our goal is to fundamentally redesign the way that creatives work together and discover one another. Let’s find our people, and celebrate the experience of enabling one destination for creator driven content.

A Utopian Future

I-D covered the daisie 100 launch, and explained that we “…promise a utopian future that demystifies while challenging the mechanisms behind the most difficult industries.”

We are breaking down the ‘traditional’ routes for a career in the creative arts, and putting talent and natural collaboration first. Creative industries are taking baby steps to becoming more in line with how the modern world works; they’re still a way off, but we’ve seen genuine change in the last few years. The goal is to play a part in the shift towards the uprooting of the current archaic system that puts incredible power into the figureheads of the industry, and has stripped that power from the people. “You let one ant stand up to us, and they all might stand up! Those puny little ants outnumber us a hundred to one. And if they ever figure that out… There goes our way of life!”

Let’s introduce a new route into the creative world; through connections made organically and the natural development of skills. We can promote this idea by supporting the creators, and giving them the opportunities to connect with the people who are in the position they want to be in. Power through knowledge. Collaboration is an especially important factor in growth. It’s the most natural and effective device for development; working with others forces adaptation, both in communication and product building skills.

We have the potential to change a very established market, and force the giant companies to be more transparent and caring. daisie is surrounded by the biggest platforms in the world, it’s not a topic we’re trying to avoid. We are a tiny dot on a detailed canvas. We do, however, offer something that can’t be offered by these other spaces. We are small. We pride ourselves on being small, it’s special. We see every download, every first post, every project & chain made. We can listen closer, change faster and adapt more specifically to the requirements of our community. We’ve got to remember this mindset going forward; it’s fundamental to understand that each and every person has a different requirement when they first download daisie; we must make sure we are always catering to that.

We believe in the youth, and the power through unlimited connectivity; both in knowledge and success. Together, we can push this message, and ensure that whilst protecting this community, we are enabling them to be the best they can be. We are the fastest changing generation there ever has been and the model for adaptation is vital to the prolonged success of the company. Let’s continue to give youth the voice to make an impact, and the power to change the world.

The Big Goal

We are building a world where creators are credited properly for their work. Instead of dumping names onto the bottom of a description, or tagging a pile of random usernames on an image; we’re making a point to credit people with the roles they had and the impact they made on the overall project. When creative pieces of work co-exist on all collaborators profiles, sharing the view count and comments — everyone grows together, the credit is shared and feedback spread, providing valuable credit and benefitting the team.

We’re establishing collaboration from raw concept through to final delivery, a transparent journey from a fleeting thought or random inspiration, to the nuts and bolts of development and then the finished product. The exposure of the steps you take can be freeing, both for yourself as a creator, but also for the individuals that look up to you for advice. We all start collectively at the same point, with that first idea — it’s the only stage in the process that is firmly equal across varying experience, but how we display and distribute that thought, and get people excited about the process, up until now had been an underrepresented process. We believe that strength comes through community, with feedback being an integral part of developing as a creator. Not only will the collaborative process be hugely liberating for the creative team behind the project, but will also generate a community of interested users, far before the final vision is realised.

We’ve put certain parameters into place to enable us to grow organically. Everyone who wants to creatively share and collaborate will eventually get an account on daisie but to ensure the platform doesn’t grow uncontrollably, and lose it’s reason for being, we are setting up a ‘waiting room’. We want to make sure that people understand how and why to be on daisie. We have brand new features like ‘Question Times’, ‘Shared Projects’ and ‘Chains’ that have a slight learning curve; so we want to ensure that the experience is fulfilling and engaging. It’s also important that the content being shared is relevant and industry specific as we work towards our eventual goal of fully open-source collaboration across industries. This is our first step in a long and meandering journey.

Worry is a misuse of imagination

It’s vitally important for all creators to consider why they’re doing what they’re doing, and to understand what it means to have a driving force far beyond that of worry. Focus on yourself, your thoughts, feelings and motivations; your creations are a reflection of your own inspiration. Try not to get distracted with negative thoughts. Breathe it in, swallow it up, and keep moving.

We’re looking for the creatives that exist to wander. The individuals that find reasoning and excitement in the mundane, and who possess the ability to shape the normal into the extraordinary.

daisie has youth at its core, it’s built by a young team and inspired by a generation of connection. The desires and ambitions we possess are guided by instinct rather than experience; we move slowly forward, one step at a time, with our arms fully outstretched. For daisie to work & flourish, we’ve got to trust our fellow creators and inspire one another to keep on moving.

Look up a bit more

daisie works with existing platforms. Projects and stories are built on daisie, independently or with collaborators, then when the piece is ready to be shared, it can live on daisie and on other platforms. We aren’t asking you to choose daisie over your existing social platforms, we’d just like to share a little part of your day.

We know that daisie will encourage people to spend more time on themselves, on their lives and careers. To look up a bit more, take everything in, and focus on where they’re going. We want to facilitate creation and the best way to become a better artist in your respective industry, is by making, receiving feedback, and making again.

We’re believe that people spend more time online than they want to, due to algorithms that keep content from users, as well as the sense of belonging that these popular platforms evoke. It’s important to slow down sometimes, and take more care when considering the content that you’re being exposed to, and whether it’s relevant to your own personal journey. daisie will allow users to build new, honest communities and find the people they naturally connect with.

The possibility of actually learning and honing a craft as a result of using social media is something that seems quite foreign, and yet makes complete sense. Instead of sinking hours into a continuous loop of the same content, imagine the potential of spending that time learning, exploring & sharing the content that you’ve created and the content you want to see. An explore page defined by the very industries that you’ve chosen to subscribe to, a timeline filled with inspiration, group messages facilitating creative discussion. It all seems very obvious and fulfilling, but there wasn’t a home for it until now.

We can provide connections between people. Real, genuine, industry driven connections. We can give opportunities to achieve giant exposure. We can also hope to produce a community of excited, raw talent — ready to be shared and discovered. We need to see our app from the perspective of every user, at every stage of their career.

Fluidity Of Creative Industries

We’re living in a very exciting period of time where our potential is only limited by our thoughts. We are more connected than ever, we have access to incredibly powerful programs and alongside that all, we have the ability and freedom to create change. Creative industries are fluid in their nature; film influences music, art influences photography — everything is connected and everyone has the opportunity to harness the different creative mediums to propel their careers. The ability to be inspired by something from one medium and not have the fear to combine it with another is an incredibly liberating prospect. We hope that the introduction of chain and explore will enable and encourage this connectivity. Our industries were specifically chosen; they are raw forms of communication that can benefit one another. We hope that creators of all styles and industries will be empowered to collaborate with people from every corner of the world, and find the inspiration to reach out of their comfort zone and work on projects that may be new to them, or that may not fit into their canon of work.

The ability to create, share and collaborate in one place seemed like a very natural extension of the connected world we live in. As the standard across these industries continues to rise, the talent emerging from areas of society that had almost no contact with the creative space is a sight to behold. Let’s continue to be inspired by one another, both when creating a beautiful product, and also when investing and trusting in the wider community on daisie. Our firm belief is that we can eventually establish a network with no restrictions on location or contacts, but a representation purely based on effort, talent, and the desire to learn and achieve.

In a memo sent out to Tiny Speck (the creators of Slack), two weeks before Slack’s release; a flawless description of innovation was stated; and it’s perfectly phrased.

“The best — maybe the only? — real, direct measure of “innovation” is change in human behaviour. In fact, it is useful to take this way of thinking as definitional: innovation is the sum of change across the whole system, not a thing which causes a change in how people behave. No small innovation ever caused a large shift in how people spend their time and no large one has ever failed to do so.”

Doers

There are a lot of people in this world who deserve daisie, and who are damn good at doing. They’ve just been skipped over, and they need their chance.Let’s listen to them, watch & analyse. Let’s really try to understand their behaviour, needs & wants. Then let’s use that information to improve, day by day, working towards creating something that benefits everyone that uses it; ensuring that all pieces come together, simultaneously, for the user.

Let’s work together to build a community and product that people are proud to be a part of.