Mizozo, The First Fully Transparent Company

After hinting about this for the past few weeks, I think it is time to shed some light on Mizozo's revolutionary business model. With the current societal push for more government transparency, Mizozo has been quietly putting in place plans to start the first truly transparent Corporate Entity.

The goal is to provide all Publishers (registered users) a means to see all money going in and out of the Mizozo coffers. Why? Mizozo plans to share about half of all money coming into the site with its publishers. By making everything about Mizozo transparent, with detailed reports on income, expenses and traffic, users will have the opportunity not only to participate in all aspects of Mizozo's day to day business, but they will also be able to participate in Mizozo's future planning.

We plan to put forward a mechanism that will give all publishers the ability to see which of their articles are popular, which other publishers have popular articles, how the money is going in and out of Mizozo, how much of that money said publisher is entitled to, and a great deal more. A payout matrix will be made public and as time progresses Publishers will have a say in modifying the payout Matrix.

Over time, I will go into more detail regarding this business model, but the end should be clear. While we at Mizozo also want to make money, this is secondary to providing a great product that will benefit everyone. If you are already a registered user and would like to already begin participation, you may contact the admins either through this blog or through Mizozo's Contact Us section. Otherwise, we plan to have the initial stages of our transparency by January 1st, 2013.

Mizozo is Back Up After #Blacout Protest

Mizozo is happy to conclude its #blackout protest against SOPA and PIPA. We are feverishly against any form of Internet censorship, as you all should be as well. With thousands of sites joining the protest, Congressmen and Senators have been working overtime trying to quell the public discontent. One Senator, Ron Wyden, has been against SOPA and PIPA from the beginning and has released a statement in support of #blackout. The press release is posted below.

For some entertainment, you should check out TheOatmeal's response to SOPA and PIPA, it is absolutely hilarious.

January 18, 2012 


Innovators, Speakers, Thinkers, and Agents for Change
The World Wide Web 


Dear Friends: 


Today thousands of websites have chosen to voluntarily go offline or modify their home pages with public service information. Some have called this a stunt. I say it’s a brave and poignant reminder that we can’t take the Internet for granted. 


The Internet has become an integral part of everyday life precisely because it has been an open-to-all land of opportunity where entrepreneurs, thinkers and innovators are free to try, fail and then try again. The Internet has changed the way we communicate with each other, the way we learn about the world and the way we conduct business. It has done this by eliminating the tollgates, middle men, and other barriers to entry that have so often predetermined winners and losers in the marketplace. It has created a world where ideas, products and creative expression have an opportunity regardless of who offers them or where they originate. 


Protect IP (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) are a step towards a different kind of Internet. They are a step towards an Internet in which those with money and lawyers and access to power have a greater voice than those who don’t. They are a step towards an Internet in which online innovators need lawyers as much or more than they need good ideas. And they are a step towards a world in which Americans have less of a voice to argue for a free and open Internet around the world. 


Proponents of these bills say these arguments are overblown, but I say any step towards an Internet in which one person’s voice counts more than another is a step in the wrong direction. These are bills that should give us pause. These are bills that should be studied and debated. Congress should consult experts and consider alternatives and make 100% sure that any step it takes to police the Internet doesn't change the Internet as we know it. This is why I put a hold on the Protect IP Act and its predecessor over a year ago and introduced a bipartisan alternative last month. 


The Senate, however, has scheduled a vote for Tuesday, January 24 at 2:15 PM to override my hold and move the Protect IP Act towards passage. This will be the deciding vote that determines whether PIPA and SOPA move through the Congress or are turned back for more sober discussion. 


We are up against a group of the biggest, most powerful, well-funded and well-organized interest groups in Washington. No one thought millions of Internet users would speak up or that those voices could overcome the power of these interests. Today you showed that the Internet is not just a platform for ideas, commerce, and expression, but also for political action that will defend those principles. Your voices must continue to be heard. 


Thank you for standing up for what’s important, for continuing to speak out and for demonstrating that we should always stand up for what we think is right regardless of the odds. This is an opportunity to reshape the way Washington operates, not just responding to narrow interests but hearing the voices of millions of Americans whose rights and livilihoods are affected by our actions. 


Sincerely, 


Ron Wyden
United States Senator

Mizozo is Down in Support of #BLACKOUT

As planned, Mizozo was taken down this morning at 6am. It should be back up at around 6pm this evening. This is in response to the SOPA and PIPA acts being pushed through the government. Mizozo has decided to work with Sopastrike on this, using their suggested HTML for our message as to why Mizozo was taken down.

Please, spend 5 minutes and contact your senators and congressmen today about SOPA and PIPA. For a list of all Senators phone numbers, click this link. For congressman, you will need to do a bit more work. If you really want to make some noise, call them every 5 minutes to ensure that their lines are down all day. Lets all do our part to ensure that bills like SOPA and PIPA never again see the light of day.

Mizozo to Join the Internet Blackout on January 18th

As mentioned on Mizozo, Mizozo will be going dark tomorrow in protest of SOPA and PIPA. While their chances of success is virtually null right now, we feel it is still important to make a statement to let those in power know that such actions will not be tolerated.

Mizozo will be down from 6am to 6pm January 18th. I am sorry if this is inconvenient, but we feel that it is for the greater good.

Mizozo Development has Begun Full Force

While development on Mizozo is a regular occurrence, due to budget constraints it is difficult to have a full time developer. Now that we are beginning our final push to get Mizozo on the big stage, we have finally begun major development last week and have much to report. A large number of changes so far have been done to the back end, however one very important fix was done to our publisher profiles. For those using the site, you are aware that when a profile is created on Mizozo, a subdomain is created for the user displaying all the user's articles. For several months now this subdomain has been broken, but finally it was fixed early last week. Likewise, some fixes were done to our WYSIWYG article editor and a bit more. The majority of the work now is being done on the Home Page and Article Page redesign.

Due to the way the site is structured, I do not think that we will not be able to roll out the changes until they are all complete. Of course, maybe the development team can figure something out, but I don't want too much time spent on that when we have bigger things to worry about. I expect that our new front end will be complete and ready to roll out by mid March.

And now, a little teaser about our Revolutionary Business Model. Mizozo aims to be the first truly transparent company. We plan to make public all of our revenue, all of our expenses and all of our profits. Whats more, our profits will be divided amongst our contributing users. You can think of Mizozo as the first transparent, socialist social network.

... More about this in upcoming posts