My Current Thinking – RE Google+ Shutting down.
I need your input and help
I have my eye on three social networks… They are Gab, Minds, and MeWe.

Gab
Gab is something I will probably make a go of since F+M will most likely have an integration to share posts automatically. It may be possible to grow Gazing Skyward TV’s reach through Gab. I would manage it a lot like I do for my Twitter accounts.

Minds
Minds has been on my radar for a long time. It is the most developed of all the new/alt social platforms. One benefit to me as publisher is the ability to earn cryptocurrency for my contributions through people Liking, Commenting, and Sharing. GSTV has always been self funded. This will get tougher to sustain as time goes on without financial support.

MeWe
In it’s current form, MeWe’s feature set is limiting especially as compared to Google+. I have heard that will be changing with further development. What I just found out tonight is MeWe has Sir Tim Berner’s Lee (the founder of the internet) as an adviser. A few weeks ago, I read and and excitedly shared a bunch of articles on SOLID and Inrupt (a project of Sir Tim Berner’s Lee) on my Google+ profile. I do think what Tim is working on is quite possibly the future of the Internet because of it’s focus on privacy and data ownership. MeWe will be integrating the SOLID platform Tim is developing.

Here is an article about Tim’s project:
https://www.fastcompany.com/90243936/exclusive-tim-berners-lee-tells-us-his-radical-new-plan-to-upend-the-world-wide-web

Also, check out my Collection to see all the posts I shared about Tim’s new project… SOLID and Inrupt.
https://plus.google.com/collection/YNMOKE

Gazing Skyward TV – The Website
I am thinking about publishing the This Day in Aviation History posts to the website and sharing links out to the various social platforms. I will be finding ways to monetize the site through ads, affiliate marketing, and donations through sites like Paypal and Patreon. I have some ideas to further enhance content that would be published there through community engagement which I will save for a discussion at a later date.

Lastly
If I start focusing on the GSTV website, it will need a major overhaul and a major feature set upgrade. There will then be day to day management tasks. I am up for this so long there is community support.

I haven’t made it known to most of you but I’m building a web development business that I plan to open in the next month. So that has been keeping me very busy getting all that set up. This announcement of Google shutting down Google+ couldn’t have come at a worse time for me.

I do feel very strongly about online privacy and data ownership as evidenced by the Intersection of Tech and Free Speech Collection I post to. So Google’s announcement gave me a good excuse move up the timeline and take a hard look at platforms and strategies that align with these values.

I will not let GSTV die but I need your help and participation. I will need you to step up to help with some tasks. A few of those tasks would be community moderators, researchers, and writers. Instead of just moving to a different platform, I want to take what we are already doing here and put it on steroids.

So who is with me on this very rough plan? Any ideas and feedback would be great!