Real Coffe - Scott Adams - Episode 218 Scott Adams: How to Get Paid as Citizen Video Journalist...
Aired: 2018-09-12
Duration: 08:13


=== Becoming an Instant Reporter (05:46) ===

[00:00:00]  Hey everybody!
[00:00:08]  Come on in here.
[00:00:09]  This will be a quick one.
[00:00:12]  So I've got something that's sort of exciting.
[00:00:17]  I hope it's exciting for you too.
[00:00:19]  So as we're watching the Hurricane Florence approach the coast, and hoping everybody gets out of there, if you're anywhere near the hurricane, get out!
[00:00:31]  Get out! Run for your life, or at least make sure you're very safe.
[00:00:37]  But it made me think that my startup, WenHub, has somewhat accidentally designed a product that would allow anybody to be a An instant video reporter if they happen to be around the scene of any disaster or major news event.
[00:00:56]  And I wanted to show you how easy that would be.
[00:00:58]  So all you would need is the interface app that's free.
[00:01:01]  It's in the Apple Store or the Google Store.
[00:01:03]  Download it. It's free.
[00:01:05]  When you open it up, it says you can be an expert or find an expert.
[00:01:09]  If you want to be an expert, let's say you want to be a reporter who's on scene and can just point your phone at stuff and get paid for it.
[00:01:20]  There's a place where you just put your expertise.
[00:01:23]  Let's say you had to be on site when Florence was over, but there's still a lot of flooding.
[00:01:32]  It's safe. You've got a cell connection.
[00:01:34]  I hope you have a cell connection.
[00:01:36]  And you're going to be there anyway.
[00:01:39]  If you don't have to be there, don't be there.
[00:01:42]  And don't go there just to take pictures.
[00:01:44]  But what I'm telling you is, If you happen to be there, and there's something interesting, whether it's Hurricane Florence, or you happen to be at a protest, or there's something newsworthy, a big fire, for example, you could just go into the Interface by WinHub app, it's free, and just set your price.
[00:02:06]  So you just type in, I will go live with you for $100 an hour, $25 an hour, whatever it is.
[00:02:14]  And then in your expertise, just put in, in this case, Florence, Hurricane, Reporter.
[00:02:20]  And you can also tap to update your profile and put in some more words about your on-site, and you could take some pictures if people want.
[00:02:30]  Now, this product...
[00:02:33]  It is made for one-to-one.
[00:02:35]  So an individual can contact you and say, hey, I'd like to see what it looks like from somebody who's actually there on the ground.
[00:02:44]  And yeah, I would pay.
[00:02:45]  I'd pay $25 for that.
[00:02:47]  I'd do that. Maybe just 15 minutes, but I'd pay $25 for that.
[00:02:51]  And you hit it. If the other person answers, they're making $25 for 15 minutes of talking to you and pointing the phone and stuff so that you can see what they see.
[00:03:03]  Now, there's nothing to prevent news organizations from also calling you.
[00:03:12]  So you would imagine that a lot of large and small news organizations, they're always starved for new video.
[00:03:19]  So when there's a disaster, they have their own cameras there, but they love it when they can get some submissions, somebody took some video, etc.
[00:03:28]  And instead of going through the channels and trying to figure out, well, I took a video, but how would I get this to CNN or to somebody who would play it?
[00:03:37]  Instead, just sign on to the Intervace app, put Hurricane or Florence or whatever the situation is as your expertise, and wait for people to call you.
[00:03:51]  Now, if they call, they've got a few minutes of grace period before billing starts, so you can make sure that each other are real.
[00:04:01]  But then at that point, you can charge CNN for calling your phone and pointing it in the direction of the fire.
[00:04:09]  Now, they'd probably want to record it, and they wouldn't get a great picture because it would be off a phone, but they would definitely use it, or somebody would use it.
[00:04:22]  So, we didn't make the product for this.
[00:04:28]  It's really made for any situation where two people want to talk, they're not in the same place, and one of them has a good enough reason to charge the other one.
[00:04:39]  So, it could be as simple as somebody charging to have lunch with you.
[00:04:45]  You could just say, I'm available for a conversation.
[00:04:49]  Let's have lunch. $20 an hour.
[00:04:52]  Just turn on the phone and put it in front of your bowl of soup, and I'll talk to you while you're having lunch.
[00:04:58]  So there's no limitation on how to use it.
[00:05:01]  We branded it as being for experts, but expert for us means...
[00:05:06]  For us, expert means whatever you have that somebody wants to see.
[00:05:11]  Somebody wants to hear.
[00:05:14]  So I think I'll keep this one short because I just wanted to get that idea out there.
[00:05:19]  That if you use the interface by WenHub app, you can set your own price.
[00:05:24]  And if you happen to be near something that's newsworthy, People will find you.
[00:05:29]  If I see any of those Florence or Hurricane keywords, I'll probably call them myself, partly because I'm just testing the product and I like to use it as much as possible.

=== Censorship and Permission (02:26) ===

[00:05:47]  So if you don't get a call from CNN, You might get a call from me, because I'll be looking to call in.
[00:05:55]  But, you know, make sure you're actually on scene of something interesting.
[00:05:59]  Yeah, so it's limited to one-to-one, but in the case of a news agency, they would know how to take the video off a device and broadcast it.
[00:06:09]  You just have to give them permission, I would assume.
[00:06:12]  I mean, you don't have to, but that would be good form if you gave them permission.
[00:06:17]  So, someday we'll be one-to-many, but at the moment it's one-to-one, and a news agency would know how to take their end and broadcast it.
[00:06:26]  So, To answer your question about censorship, I'll just give you the big picture.
[00:06:37]  The interface app was built so that you can pay in crypto, our own crypto, called the WEN, which you can purchase.
[00:06:46]  I'll have to talk more about that later, but some of the WEN comes with the product, so the moment you sign up, you've got some for free.
[00:06:56]  Those do not go through a bank.
[00:06:59]  So if you're paying with the cryptocurrency and somebody has agreed to accept it, they have to accept either cash via a credit card or crypto or both.
[00:07:14]  But if they accept it, then there was no bank in that transaction.
[00:07:19]  So that's your general answer to the censorship question.
[00:07:28]  Otherwise, it's a private call.
[00:07:30]  So it's the same censorship that FaceTime would have.
[00:07:35]  It's the same censorship as a phone call would have.
[00:07:38]  It's a private call between two individuals.
[00:07:41]  So we would hope that people do legal things, but we're not going to be watching your call.
[00:07:48]  All right. And I remind you that earlier today I banned Alex Jones from the Interface app.
[00:07:56]  He can still use it.
[00:07:58]  Just don't tell me about it, Alex.
[00:08:00]  I thought it would be good publicity if I banned him, so I'm banning the hell out of him.
[00:08:05]  I'm banning everybody I can ban if I can give some free press.
[00:08:09]  Alright, but Alex, you can still use it if you want.
[00:08:12]  Alright, I'll talk to you later.