A big moment has arrived for Placecloud. As founder of Placecloud, I have decided to step aside from the project and hand responsibility over to a new team, the fantastic place-based arts organisation walk · listen · create (WLC), the home of walking artists and artist walkers.

If this ain’t your first time visiting Placecloud, you probably know that much of the technical development of the Placecloud platform was in the hands of Babak Fakhamzadeh. Babak has a long experience in working with location-based services, and is part of the team behind WLC.

It always was a key tenet of mine that Placecloud be revenue-generating, such that contributors could be paid for their work and the platform be financially sustainable. Unfortunately, the reality of internet economics has proved this vision very difficult to achieve, even practically impossible, without large injections of capital.

WLC have a different model; They are a not-for-profit and so not need Placecloud to generate large amounts of revenue. They are a network organisation of artists, performers, and writers, who use walking as a catalyst for their practice, a community of over 1500 creators. They also host two awards, specifically for highlighting walking art: the Sound Walk September Awards, and the Marŝarto Awards. 

I very strongly believe that Placecloud will remain in very capable hands.

WLC will still work towards making Placecloud financially sustainable, while putting a strong emphasis on expanding reach, that is, making the content on Placecloud more seen and heard.

I believe that we, as contributors to Placecloud, have made something to be proud of. I’m very much looking forward to this next stage in Placecloud’s journey.

Over the coming weeks and months, there will be some changes to Placecloud, which I believe will be exciting. I can’t wait to see where Placecloud will go, next.