Should SOFT get help from the government?

[soft]

Ok, it has come to a point where SOFT will not be able to effectively work towards it's goal - which is promoting music making without external help.

I have tried donation, advertising sales and still I do not have enough to execute the various plans.

A possibility would be to approach the government for help. It will not be easy. I don't know who to approach and how to go about doing it.

If there is any SOFTie who can give me some ideas, feedback, suggestion or might know of someone who has the contact, I need your help.

How is it that every now and then I see news about funds/grants and SOFT isn't getting any!

With the many SOFTies around, I hope we can find a way.

 

[thor666]

hmm... try asking Anthony aka HeartRock?

james, would you consider archiving old postings? some of the threads are way too old. maybe could move elsewhere to reduce server load.

 

[soft]

alamak, we always kopi together. we in the same boat. wait, his is cruise, mine is a sampan.

it is not only the server. i wanted to create more content and also improve the features on the website. but these are expensive stuff. something that i cannot afford from my own pocket.

 

[hifi_killer]

i did some research on that before, most of the fund and grants from the NAC goes into the theater/acting scene, very very small % of it goes into the music scene.

 

[soft]

i almost cried when i approached them last time.

NAC: "Oh, but yours is a website? We cannot fund websites, maybe you can approach IDA."

IDA: "Oh, you want to produce video material? I think you better approach MDA, they do film/video."

MDA: "Oh, we have a Internet Public Education fund but yours is not really quite what we do."

But I believe the fund/grant is there, just that I am not knocking on the right door.

 

[blahblah]

hmm but usually governmental backing meants some degree of government control. :lol:

 

[jbarks]

how much bw and space do the forums take up /month?

 

[HeartRockSingapore]

ha ha...I miss this thread. We are both sampans lah. But if both sampans tie together you get a cruise lor.

 

[mikemann]

Maybe you should repackage what you are selling. Sometime an idea being renamed and proposed in a different way could turn eyes your way.

Take an example. Corporate training (or motivational, or sucess), no body bat an eye to these last time. Now I heard, govt and linked institutes are paying bucks to do these 'workshop'. Slick packaging. IMO, the actual benifits of such session are at best limited.

Again you must identify what is the goal and benifits, then bang hard on the points. Why not be commercial, show them that you could even make money from it, have a model to show.

 

[HeartRockSingapore]

Mikemann has a point. That's what I told the MCYS ppl, I will do social service with a corporate identity...so what? Bottom line is integrity and transparency, not officialdom. But of course do things absolutely lawful.

 

[drummar-buah]

i think soft needs help now la.. espacially with the coming of this new e-learning thing. i wonder how much more it'll cost.

but wasn't there a topic on a monthly soft fund? what happened to that? we have a bloody 7.5k pple in this forum which is, i believe, i pretty huge success.

comparing soft.com with www.drummerworld.com , drummerworld is the number one most visited drum website in the world. but then it only has 3k members participating in the forums. soft which is only mostly heard of and based in singapore, has 7.5k!! like.. 2 times more than the number one most visited drum website IN THE WORLD.

persoanlly i don't mind the soft fund. i don't mind paying 10 bucks each month. assuming that say 7k members pay 5 bucks each month. that'll be 35k a month man.. imagine the possiblities of wat we can do with those money. but then again. not everyone is participating enthusiastically, but. every cent counts right?

maybe if SOFT can't get govenrment help. i think it's time to implement funds? if not damn jiat lat leh..

 

[thor666]

actually it will be a bit tricky for soft to get donations on a consistent basis on a large scale. I believe there are some laws and statutes regarding such forms of donation, which James may have to explore.

Also, I dare say, only at most 4K of the users are active. The rest come in here for instant gratification (What guitar to buy? How to fix this thing? Anyone?) or to check out stuff.

However, even then, this seems to be a good idea. Even everyone contributing $1 alone a month would allow the website to stay afloat for quite a while, and enable soft to expand its services and stuff beyond just the forum.

 

[Ichiro]

if you are talking about paying 5-10bucks a mth.... i don't think it will work. as u can see that 40.32% of the forum members are 13-17, do think that this age of ppl will do that... considering using this method of funding....

it will end up, maybe up to 40% of the forum member doesn't want to stay in soft family....

but i think going for the goverment helps is more sensible, having this large group of members... i believe we will be able to do it...

My idea is why start a event, maybe a marathon gig. A 2 days event and ask all the softies to donate some $$. those who got bands and want to perform if possible donate at lets say min of $50 then jam on stage then also invite ppl who support soft & goverments offical to come, let them take a look who much people is supporting soft... meanwhile u can also do a petition and ask them to sign....

i am juz being straight on my idea, if it does break any law or rule. please accept my apology in advance as i am trying to help....

cheers..

if there are ppl like mikemann & anthony around, i believe they will help SOFT out

and lastly i would like to say that iwill always support SOFT!!!!!!!

 

[Mobius]

About getting donations, maybe can put up donations tins at the music gear shops at excelsior and etc. ? This will make it easier for people to donate.

As for getting help, how about writing to the straits times forum? Cos most of the time when people complain through the straits times forum, some bigshot will come and address the problem. You can tell them about how u were "ping ponged" around from NAC to IDA to MDA.

Or maybe getting the straits times to write an article about the website, this will definitely get their attention.

Or maybe try talking to the MP during those meet the MP sessions?

 

[Ichiro]

gd idea

 

[Cheez]

Monthly funds will be tough. Although we have 7.5K registered users, not all frequents this site. Most may register just to post an ad to sell something. A quick marketing calculation: most of the time we have about 100 people online. We can roughly assume 100 people frequents this site, maybe more. If we look at the poll James put up, people who are financially viable (those above 26) constitute about 18%. The 18-25 bracket may or may not contribute much as they are still studying, but they consitute another 40%. So perhaps about 50% of all SOFTies are ABLE to contribute.

50% of 100 people will be about 50 people. Not all are willing, perhaps maybe 50% of that. So that makes about 25 people who will be willing and able to contribute voluntarily. Most are perhaps willing to chip in once off rather than monthly. How much does it take to put SOFT for a year? Divide that by 25 and we can see how much each one needs to give.

I think, perhaps, a once a year fund-raising will be more effective. That may be able to cover expenses for 1 year without worrying. Anybody from NKF or used to be from NKF - can help out here.

 

[rottenramone]

..

its not a good idea to ask the govt for assistance. this site is about commercial music, not cultural. maybe singapore popular culture, but its not seen to be part of singapore's 'heritage' or 'culture'

so better to go diy. that way james will still have control.

for fund raising, i think the with the donation tins (soliciting funds), you'll need approval from police.

how about a soft weekend pasar malam? have ppl coming in to sell their old junk. no need to be just musical stuff. you could charge $$ to set up stalls. i rem seeing the toys fair at the former clarke quay was a huge success.

 

[bklk]

no no no... leave goverment out of this. thats the last thing you would wanna do.

 

[cereal]

and still I do not have enough to execute the various plans.

what are your plans for SOFT?

Besides government bodies you mentioned, i don't think there are any others that give out grants.

its stupid sometimes, they want us to be entrepeneurial but turn down our requests for grants and bank loans.

 

[cereal]

if u guys want free servers for archiving can go to www.ourmedia.org

Unlimited space n no bandwidth costs as long as its non-copyrigted material (songs/videos). but uploading stuff can be leceh sometimes.