A proposal was generated for financial monitoring features to be added to the platform. The community managing community radio stations underlined that tools within the RootIO platform to support financial monitoring and reporting would be useful for the governance of the station. Recognizing and keeping track of opportunities for these stations can however be challenging. Sophisticated services allow for self-service purchases such as the purchase of advertisement space on Facebook while

more »

... care of payments (for example via credit card) while also providing accountability for monies earned. RootIO stations are often in (geographically and potentially economically) remote grassroots communities, introducing two new variables: reduced availability and use of technologies that support electronic payments, increased localization and proximity to consumers of the services of RootIO stations, affording a relaxation of strict authentication requirements necessary in far-reaching platforms. If payments are to be made, digital payments may be the least used. As a result, a design consideration is the elimination of digital payments, but rather a focus on keeping track of how much money the station has made. The design also has an option to keep track of the expenses of the station, thereby giving a comprehensive financial projection for a particular station. For this reason, we designed a series of new features to be integrated into the platform to support these activities. Through the new features, the users have the possibility to attach a price to an item broadcast on the station. This can be done through the creation of a contract for every predefined track, podcast, streaming, and program. The user can set the amount of revenue, currency, beginning and expiration date of the contract. In addition, the user can keep track of all other sources of revenue external to the radio contents (donation, sponsorship, etc.) and of the expenses and bills related to the station. A final report gives the user a detailed pictur [...]