The Audience Engine

This article is about the proposed software product. For the existing auto sales lead generating software of the same name, see Kijiji.
This article is about the proposed software product. For the multi-channel marketing tool of the same name, see Experian.
Congera Corporation
Company typePublic Benefit Corporation[1]
IndustryInternet, broadcasting
Founded2015
HeadquartersJersey City, New Jersey, USA
Key people
Ken Freedman and Liz Berg, Founders
Websitehttp://www.audienceengine.net

The Audience Engine is announced open-source, customizable suite of fundraising tools for public radio being developed by the Congera Corporation, a subsidiary of WFMU Radio. It was conceived by and is being developed under the supervision of WFMU management, but as of November 2020 no product has been announced, demoed or released thus rendering the project as effectively vaporware.

The platform is based on WFMU's own model of fundraising and listener-community relations, a project that began development in 1998[2] and WFMU claims helps raise 70% of its annual $2.5 million operating budget via its website. The developers explain that "by pairing online content, real-time playlist information, social media, and community interaction tools directly with crowdfunding campaigns, WFMU has not only built a positive and intelligent online community, but also a sustainable model that can be adopted by other organizations."[3] Besides radio, Audience Engine has potential usage for online television and journalism. The goal is to "enable organizations ... to build audiences and become self sufficient."[4]

A large part of Audience Engine's potential appeal is its tightly integrated fundraising capabilities. "Audience Engine comes with a set of tools that integrates crowdfunding-inspired donation tools throughout a publisher's site, with on and off-site widgets for donations as well as gift reward management, and a full suite of analytics underlying it all for that publisher to gain insight on what is and isn't raising money," noted Flanagan.[5] Freedman observed that "Kickstarter did a great job of borrowing or stealing the concept of the pledge drive, and vastly improved it as well. Public media hasn't borrowed it back yet! That's what we're trying to do."[5]

Although aimed primarily towards small and mid-sized radio stations, larger public radio stations such as WBUR and WNYC have considered harnessing the platform's possible uses in their operations.[6]

A draft of the platform was publicly debuted at a launch event held on November 5, 2015.[7][8]

  1. ^ Simpson, April, "Serving Mission, Seeking Profits Through Public Benefit Corporations", Current.org, June 16, 2016
  2. ^ Video: Ken Freedman's Open Source Marriage of Audio, Music & Radio, The Berkman Center for Internet and Society, May 9, 2008
  3. ^ "Audience Engine - An open source toolkit for media and democracy". www.audienceengine.net. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  4. ^ "WFMU building open source audience engine," The Wire, July 30, 2014
  5. ^ a b Flanagan, ibid.
  6. ^ Kalish, Jon, "At debut, Audience Engine offers CRM and pledge-drive tools," Current.org, November 11, 2015
  7. ^ Kalish, ibid.
  8. ^ Ken Freedman introduces the concept behind Audience Engine at Civic Hall, November 5, 2015 (video)