EcoGPX: Regenerative Wealth Transformation through New Art-Tech-Community Pathways

Social media has always rested on a dubious financial model: With users interacting for “free,” the only income to social media platforms is through advertising. As more and more users are “captured” by a given platform, financial incentives tend to cater more and more to the needs of advertisers over those of users, leading to what Cory Doctorow has called the “enshittification” or “platform decay” of the internet. There is an urgent need for what Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center calls “rebooting social media” in the name of public good. EcoGPX proposes a new financial model for social media emphasising horizontal, community and place-based pathways, which are facilitated by the platform and directly and indirectly regenerate wealth that remains with participating contributors and partner organisations rather than being absorbed by a central corporate entity. We have decades of experience and hundreds of network members across 30+ countries who are ready to playtest our new mobile platform to see how it can support sustainability and wealth regeneration in their own contexts. Our main challenge now is the need for an intensive coding sprint to get our new mobile app ready for such extensive testing. Our hack addresses the entrenched "wealth defence industry" that perpetuates wealth accumulation through traditional financial instruments. EcoGPX offers an alternative by re-channeling funds typically earmarked for profit into community-based arts and ecological projects, redefining ROI to include social and environmental impact and aligning financial mechanisms with regenerative practices and inner development goals (IDGs). It also subverts financial models associated with tech development, which tend to be extractive, focused on maximising centralised profits at the expense of citizens and communities who are reduced to mere “users” and potential consumers.

EcoGPX hacks the wealth defence industry by leveraging small portions of investor and public R&D and contract funds towards non-extractive, community-centred initiatives. We propose a new model for social media platform development that emphasises sustainable wealth regeneration for community and place-based practices. This requires a hacking of key social media concepts such as the user, the platform, audience, influence (as in the social media “influencer”) and the generation and dissemination of “user”-generated “content.” Building on decades of experience with art/technology interaction, we have created an initial prototype of the PLACES app which is currently beta-testing through Apple’s TestFlight process. We urgently need an intensive coding sprint to make this app ready for a much broader rollout across the larger EcoGPX community. The PLACES app resists, counters and subverts the individualised, extractive nature of prevailing social media platforms by changing its focus from the maximum capture and engagement of users to the fostering of connections between individual community leaders and place-based organisations and their communities. As recently discussed at a workshop on Public Interest Social Media Solutions at Harvard, current social media aims to maximise user engagement as this is the sole basis for advertising income. In contrast, the PLACES app focuses on place-based relationships between individuals, communities, and local organisations. Instead of individualised “users,” the PLACES app is directed towards two kinds of interactions: contributors and publics. Contributors are community leaders, artists, and teachers who create digital content related to their own local places of practice, which include natural locations like rivers and forests as well as urban locations like community centres, parks, and cultural/arts venues. The app is designed to support contributors in developing ongoing, sustainable, wealth-regenerating relationships with local organisations. The content generated by contributors is freely available to all users of the PLACES app, without logging in. These are not captured “users” in the conventional sense, because they do not login to the app and hence cannot be tracked or surveilled for advertising. Instead they are multiple publics who can find new ways of encountering and enjoying the places where they live and work through content generated by local contributors. In this way we propose an ethically and ecologically grounded model of bottom-up app development that hacks key tools of big tech, such as the mobile app as an interactive platform, redirecting technology innovation to communities and bringing on board a very different set of stakeholders in the form of local organisations, which are often left out and bypassed by social media. The PLACES app currently supports bare functionality for initial beta testing. As an organisation we have an extended network of members across the UK and Europe, and as far as Hawaii, South Africa, Colombia, India and Japan, who are ready to start playtesting the PLACES app in their own contexts. We urgently need a sprint of UX design and full stack development to be able to fully test the app and demonstrate its potential in a wide variety of contexts. We also aim to develop a clear narrative and “pitch” for the project which can be used to secure additional funds through public charitable funding as well as ethical social and environmental “angel” impact investment.

Outcomes of the EcoGPX Hack: 1. Shift in Wealth Generation: EcoGPX will transform traditional Return on Investment (ROI) models by redirecting social, cultural, and research funds towards community-based ecological and social impact projects, ensuring that wealth remains with local contributors and organisations rather than centralised corporations. 2. Decentralised Social Media Model: The PLACES app will shift the focus of social media from capturing and monetising users to fostering meaningful, place-based interactions between community leaders, local organisations, and the public, breaking away from the extractive nature of current social media platforms. 3. Enhanced Community Empowerment: By engaging racially minoritised and local communities in the co-creation of eco-artistic responses to environmental and social challenges, the initiative will promote community-led change, improving mental health, community cohesion, and ecological awareness. 4. Technological Innovation for Social Good: The PLACES app will offer an ethical, community-driven alternative to traditional social media by supporting local contributors and connecting communities with local ecological and cultural content without surveillance or advertising, fostering a sustainable and regenerative digital ecosystem. 5. Long-term Social and Environmental Impact: The EcoGPX hack will redefine financial models, aligning them with regenerative practices and Inner Development Goals (IDGs), creating lasting social, cultural, and environmental benefits while supporting underrepresented voices and fostering racial justice. 6. Global Applicability and Playtesting: With an extended network across the UK, Europe, and globally, EcoGPX will enable communities worldwide to playtest the PLACES app, refining the model for broader adoption and greater ecological and social impact.