AOL & Calacanis Recruiting Netscape Navigators at $1,000 a Month
Jason Calacanis and the new Netscape project (AOL Digg) are working to recruit active Digg, Flickr, Newsvine and MySpace users in an effort to build the transition of the mass social bookmarkers of the world from their current homes over to Netscape. The Netscape Navigators will be offered $1,000 per month for posting a minimum of 150 stories per month on Netscape.com. Calacanis is looking for about 20 loyal bookmarkers for the positions:
We will pay you $1,000 a month for your “social bookmarking” rights. Put in at least 150 stories a month and we’ll give you $12,000 a year. (note: most of these folks put in 250-400 stories a month, so that 150 baseline is just that–a baseline).
Now, this offer is going to get a big response I know, so we’re going to have to limit to a dozen or so folks. However, I’m absolutely convinced that the top 20 people on DIGG, Delicious, Flickr, MySpace, and Reddit are worth $1,000 a month and if we’re the first folks to pay them that is fine with me–we will take the risk and the arrows from the folks who think we’re corrupting the community process (is there anyone out there who thinks this any more?!).
We’re gonna identify this people in our system as “Netscape Navigators,” and they will work with our full-time “Netscape Anchors” to build a community. I see a day when we have the eight full-time Anchors working with two dozen Navigators to keep the site fresh and clean (hmm… I think I need a better choice of words here).
Although Jason’s announcement is sure to draw the critical eye of some 2.0 traditionalists, I see it as a smart move to put money on the table to build content production at the new AOL project. Recognition can only go so far in the instantaneous web, hard cash has a tendency to drive passions and integrity, and at $12,000 per year for Navigators.. AOL’s going to be saving a boat load in the long run as the new virtual reporting / DIGGing staff will free up some hands in the Netscape department to edit and enhance the new social news project.
