Civil Foundation Appoints Inaugural CEO, Vivian Schiller
Vivian Schiller, a former media executive at NBC News, NYTimes, has been appointed as the inaugural CEO of the Civil Foundation, an independent, third-party organization responsible for working with the community on the evolution of the Civil Constitution and Civil’s self-governance model.
Responsible Journalism on the Blockchain
The Civil Foundation is an independent, nonprofit organization that works with Civil, a decentralized communications protocol designed for journalists and citizens.
According to the Civil Whitepaper, the nonprofit’s goal “is to create a sustainable, global marketplace for journalism that is free from manipulative ads, misinformation and outside influence.”
Its unique crypto-economic model aims to create a transparent and direct relationship between journalists and citizens, utilizing blockchain technology to protect journalists’ from intellectual property violations and censorship.
Civil describes itself as a fair operating model that promotes decentralization and provides new revenue channels. It ascertains that significant opportunity to introduce such a model of journalism has risen with the cryptocurrency industry, largely consisting of people who are unsatisfied with the current approach and paradigm.
As stated, Schiller has decided to join Civil to support “a new blockchain-based platform with the singular mission to support a broad, global community of quality newsrooms.”
Enabling a Direct Relationship Between Newsrooms and Readers
Schiller believes that a decentralized communications protocol helps readers develop direct relationships with newsrooms and journalists, in turn fostering greater trust, loyalty, and funding. She was optimistic about Civil’s future, and believes that the platform can become an international marketplace “where quality journalism is promoted in a large ecosystem.”
Schiller acknowledged Civil Foundation’s idealistic approach towards blockchain technology and stated the unique governance structure rewards a specific set of journalistic and community standards which include participation, quality, link sharing, and respect.
Activities on the Civil protocol are processed via the Ethereum blockchain to a community of content creators, fact checkers, consumers, and publishers that work together to organize the content published on the network.
Interestingly, instead of having an editor to schedule posts and choose content, Civil’s community will curate the website. In return of their person-hours, community members will be incentivized with the ERC20 compliant CVL token.
Governance and Philanthropy in the Civil Foundation
Schiller announced in the blog her responsibility to “run the Civil Foundation as its founding CEO,” has a firm focus on governance and philanthropy.
In addition to the community, the Foundation will appoint a Civil Council consisting of experts in the areas of academics, law, and journalism. The council will help shape the rules and decide difficult disputes within the Civil community.
As for Civil’s philanthropy branch, they will undergo investigative reporting in areas of the world that are underreported and underserved.
