LiveJournal Advisory Board

It is with much gratitude that we wish to announce that we'll be retiring the LiveJournal Advisory Board at the expiration of the current members' positions, in June, 2010. We are indebted to our current and past advisory members for donating their time, expertise, and passion to help steer the direction of LiveJournal. We could never have gotten where we are without them. We have outgrown the ability to rely upon a part-time board of volunteer advisors to make efficient business-critical decisions.

We will continue to welcome input from all of our users and are committed to being as transparent and responsive as possible to our users' evolving needs and wishes.

Minutes
Advisory Board Meeting
June 10, 2009

Attendees:
Brad Fitzpatrick – Board Member
Danah Boyd – Board Member
Esther Dyson – Board Member
Stephanie Gravelle – CFO LiveJournal Inc.
Annelies Van Den Belt – CEO SUP
Benjamin Wegg-Prosser – Director of Corporate Development
Boris Ovchinnikov – LiveJournal Project Leader

Apologies:
Suhel Seth – Board Member
Larry Lessig – Board member

May Highlights

• Growth in traffic volume and unique visitors


• LiveJournal Live Messenger system to be deployed across LJ


• 10th anniversary events planned in September in Russia and in US


• LiveJournal US office moved


• Advisory Board Elections to start the week of June 15


• Management team “Emerging Media” presentation at New York University

User Rev Share Project

• LiveJournal intends to offer users, who wish to, the opportunity to commercialize their journals through a number of different initiatives over the next six months.


• Among discussed opportunities, there is a project to develop the functionality that will give users, who will decide to join the program, the tool to run the ads via external ad network and to receive revenue directly from this network.


• Management received feedback from Board members on these initiatives with focus on implementation and communication principles.

LiveJournal Positioning

• Management received feedback from Board members on how to position LiveJournal in the marketplace to future advertisers.

Meeting on March 10th, 2009 (minutes approved on March 27th, 2009)

Members Attended

Danah Boyd, Esther Dyson, Brad Fitzpatrick, Larry Lessig, Suhel Seth

Management Attended

Annelies Van Den Belt, Ben Wegg-Prosser, John Perfumo, Stephanie Gravelle

Apologies

Jennifer Brady, Zafar Khashimov

1. Business Updates
* Russian and ROW traffic growing, US traffic growth down from 2007
*Global revenue growing

Actions:
* Advertising – Focus on Sponsorships vs. Advertising

2. 10th Anniversary
*Plans underway in US and Russia
* Launch of 10th Anniversary book
* On-line forum to highlight LJ

Actions:
*Distribute contents list distribution

3. Premium Services
* Re-focus on Premium Services and Products

Actions:
*Integrations – Create a list of current and targeted integrated partnerships
*New prod

4. Advisory Board
* Need more engagement with Board members
* Ensure elected Board members engage with the users
* Upcoming Elections

Actions:
*More community involvement by Board members
*Monthly summaries of LJ highlights to be distributed  
*Quarterly calls  
*Face to Face meeting – September 2009  
*Circulate specific projects to Board for comments prior to implementation

 

There's an Advisory Board meeting on March 10 and we'd love to hear your thoughts about the agenda items listed below. We want to share your views and opinions with the Board so they can get a better picture of the issues that are important to you. Please comment on any of the agenda topics that are of interest to you and we'll present them at the meeting.

• LJ 10th Anniversary
  We have a lot of plans to mark the tenth anniversary of LiveJournal. We'll be asking the Board what they think about our plans and what role they want to play in the celebrations. You've probably already seen lj_turns10, our special birthday community. We'll use that as a springboard for a discussion with the Board about such questions as: How can we most effectively represent the global nature of LJ in our celebrations? What's the best way to reflect LJ's pioneering role in the social media boom? What areas of LJ should we be sure to highlight during the celebrations? Please comment on these questions and any other birthday-related questions you might have.



• New Paid and Premium Services
  The expansion and enhancement of premium features are a big priority for LJ in 2009. We'll be asking the Advisory Board for their views on the new services we're working on, and we want your views to be represented, too. What kind of premium features are you most interested in? Should we do more with v-gifts? Who should we partner with to best add value to the site and boost the number of Paid Accounts? What's the best way for LJ to merchandise its own goods across the globe? What other kind of features should we offer? Let us know what you think.

Agenda for the upcoming meeting on 20th October 2008




1. Approval of minutes from last meeting

2. Staffing update

3. Product and Infrastructure update

4. 2009 product planning

5. 10th Anniversary plans

6. Account changes - feedback

7. Rest of World - Introduction

8. AOB

Meeting on 27th June 2008 (minutes not yet approved by Advisory Board)

Members Attending

Danah Boyd, Jen Brady, Esther Dyson, Brad Fitzpatrick, Zafar Khashimov, Larry Lessig

Management Attending

Andrew Paulson, Matthew Berardo, Sergei Komarov, Edward Shenderovich, Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, Marina Pustilnik

Apologies

Annelies van den Belt

1. Approval of minutes from meeting of 25th April 2008 in San Francisco
* Agreed
2. Welcome to new members
* The two new user representatives made short introductions and welcomed on the board following their elections in May
3. User policy update
* The revised policy relating to the publishing of inappropriate content online where the legality was borderline was discussed. An update to the policy was circulated and discussed – The statement which Management circulated was agreed.
* It was suggest that contact should be made with relevant NGOs who will be able to advise on issues surrounding the publication of potentially illegal material – Management to pursue
* Discussion on communities that promote potentially harmful lifestyle choices was discussed. A research project was proposed which would look into this issue in more detail. The results of this project should be available by end of summer – Management to pursue
4. Account structure
* Discussion followed the potential changes to the LiveJournal account structure which were discussed at the previous meeting. Concerns were expressed regarding the reaction from users about displaying advertising in Basic Accounts. Management emphasized that nothing was cast in stone and final agreement would only be reached after thorough consultation with users – Management to develop further plans in light of comments from Board

o Board members suggested that more information be given on the financial position of LiveJournal to justify the proposed changes - Management said they would consider but emphasized that LiveJournal had wide range of views on the relevance of LiveJournals’ financial position in relation to this issue.

5. Advisory Board communications

o Board members expressed concern about the proliferation of LiveJournal official communities – Management made clear that refining these was an important part of plan to update LiveJournal

6. Any other business

o Board members asked at which point it would be appropriate to discuss issues relating to the account structure in public – Management asked members to respect confidentiality of discussion until after public announcement.

7. Next meeting

o Advisory Board General Meeting –November, San Francisco (TBC)

Post script – the date and venue of the Advisory Board General Meeting has been changed due to scheduling issues.

Meeting on 25th April 2008 (minutes approved June 27, 2008)

Members Attending

danah boyd, Esther Dyson, Brad Fitzpatrick

Management Attending

Andrew Paulson, Matthew Berardo, Jonathan Kim, Sergei Komarov, Edward Shenderovich, , Benjamin Wegg-Prosser

Apologies

Larry Lessig

1. General introduction
* Background papers to role and remit of the advisory board – Board members to feedback comments

2. Account Structure

o Proposed changes to LiveJournal Account structure discussed. Various options considered – Management to work up more detailed proposals for user consultation
o Board members suggested any new account structure should be developed in tandem with new experimental advertising formats – for example – allow users to select / influence the advertising they see – Management to investigate

3. Technology Outlook
* Discussion took placed on state of LiveJournal technology infrastructure. Management to consider comments and update users on technology issues when appropriate
* New co-location facility for LiveJournal discussed.
4. Policy review
* Non-photographic images of minors – revise policy to one which focuses on legality, emphasize extent to which material is screened (friends only / flagging etc) - Management to revise and release
* Pro-ana – revise policy to one where support is being actively given and promoted; Management to revise and release
* Convene a working party to develop LJ’s thought leadership position on this issue – Board members to develop in conjunction with Management

5. User elections
* Existing members agreed to release statements endorsing election process – Board members to return comments.

6. Next meeting
* June conference call – Management to agree date