a Better Bubble™

EQ

St. Louis Manufacturing: Tradition and New Direction

1 year 5 months ago

This article provides an historical introduction to St. Louis manufacturing, addresses its decline in the twentieth century’s latter decades, and then notes its more recent renewal around new sets of information- and knowhow-intensive industries. We conclude by discussing the St. Louis manufacturing renaissance in the context of regional planning efforts and documents, such as Greater St. Louis, Inc.’s 2030 St. Louis Jobs Plan.

The post St. Louis Manufacturing: Tradition and New Direction appeared first on EQ.

Mike Fabrizi

The Unseen Work of the Missouri Botanical Garden

1 year 6 months ago

The research and conservation arms of the Missouri Botanical Garden perform good work that matters to the whole world. It is often under-appreciated how they build intellectual capital in the St. Louis metro area, providing a more fertile environment from which other organizations and commercial enterprises, including startups, sometimes germinate and sprout.

The post The Unseen Work of the Missouri Botanical Garden appeared first on EQ.

Mike Fabrizi

The Unseen Work of the Saint Louis Zoo

1 year 6 months ago

The research and conservation arms of Saint Louis Zoo perform good work that matters to the whole world. It is often under-appreciated how they build intellectual capital in the St. Louis metro area, providing a more fertile environment from which other organizations and commercial enterprises, including startups, sometimes germinate and sprout.

The post The Unseen Work of the Saint Louis Zoo appeared first on EQ.

Mike Fabrizi

Two Saint Louis NGO’s Making an Impact on the World and Increasing St. Louis’ Collective Intelligence

1 year 6 months ago

The Zoo and Garden are great places in which to enjoy some beautiful animals and plants, hang out, and have fun. However, what is often under-appreciated and rarely discussed, is how much good work they perform that matters to the whole world through their research and conservation arms.

The post Two Saint Louis NGO’s Making an Impact on the World and Increasing St. Louis’ Collective Intelligence appeared first on EQ.

Mike Fabrizi

The Business of Trafficking in Political Disinformation and Fake News

2 years ago

In my previous article on Decide Technologies’ connections to the alt-right, I shared my research into when LockerDome’s alt-right advertising network first launched shortly after Ferguson, the size of the network that we can see with our own eyes and my estimates for how much money the company is paying out to alt-right publishers and how much they’re making.

  • Size of Alt-right publisher network: 115 sites generating 567 million page views a month 
  • Revenue to Alt-right publishers: an estimated $6.53 million to $15.24 million a year
  • Revenue to Decide Technologies: an estimated $0.54 million to $1.27 million a month

In this article, I’ll explain how ad networks work for any publisher, and why Decide's business proposition lends itself especially well to working with fake news and disinformation networks.

The post The Business of Trafficking in Political Disinformation and Fake News appeared first on EQ.

Jonathan Allen

LockerDome Has Been Paying Tens of Millions of Dollars to Hundreds of Alt-Right Websites Over the Last 7 Years

2 years 1 month ago

Following the recent revelations that LockerDome has been funding Alt-Right websites and ignoring requests for comment from Reuters and the Gateway Journalism Review, I decided to investigate just how deep the rabbit hole goes. Sadly, I’ve got bad news: there is no bottom.

I estimate, conservatively, that LockerDome – the well-known and well-funded AdTech startup from St. Louis that changed its name to Decide Technologies in February 2022 – is paying out at least $1,700,000 per month in regular commission payments to at least 115 Alt-Right publishers who form the most visible segment of their online advertising network.

Over the last seven years, the total paid out to these sites – peddling racism, hate and disinformation – could be more than $100 million.

The post LockerDome Has Been Paying Tens of Millions of Dollars to Hundreds of Alt-Right Websites Over the Last 7 Years appeared first on EQ.

Jonathan Allen

Is Business Just Business? The Questions We’re All Asking About Decide’s Ties to Alt-right

2 years 2 months ago

"Online advertising is everywhere. And, —even the annoying ones with the clickbait headlines or dramatic claims about cures your doctor will hate— those ads are likely the backbone of the way your favorite websites make money.

You read their content, click their ads, and that click becomes cash.

And not just for the website you’re on. But for the companies which placed those ads using algorithms to automatically spread them at vast scale across the internet."

- Danny Wicentowski, reporter for St. Louis Public Radio

In this brief but informative podcast episode from St. Louis On the Air, another journalist discusses LockerDome's business with the Alt-right; and gets straight to the ethical concerns on every startup founder's lips:

If you're making money, where do you draw the line? Should you even draw a line?

Jonathan Allen