AutismTown - Building a Community of Advertisers?
by
on March 26, 2007,
When I first read the press release for the creation of AutismTown, I was thrilled. While there have been some niche community sites created, none of them have been very high profile, nor have they been created by the organizations already providing support to those niche communities.
AutismTown is a joint creation of Autism Speaks, Cure Autism Now, and TalkAutism. Autism Speaks and Cure Autism Now have just announced a merger, and the combined organization provides grants for autism research and promotes awareness of the autism epidemic. TalkAutismprovides web-based support for parents and caregivers of individuals with autism, including message boards, services directory, and an online learning library.
The idea that these organizations would unite to provide a Web 2.0 community site for families dealing with autism was a promising one, and the timing of the launch and press release to be just before the beginning of April, which is Autism Awareness Month, seemed to be perfect timing. Until you delve into the "community" site, that is.
AutismTown is using a Web 2.0 buzzword to lure people into what is essentially a fundraising site. Under the guise of its tagline, which says "AutismTown - Where Help, Hope and Understanding are 'right next door,'" the site is really a reworking of the Million Dollar Homepage idea, with "pixel plots" being sold on the AutismTown homepage. However, where the Million Dollar Homepage sold individual pixels for $2.00 each, AutismTown is limiting purchases on their page to plots of 100 pixels at $1.00 USD each, making the minimum "donation" for a plot $100.00.
AutismTown claims that the site is "populated by hundreds of points of individual and group expressions of dedication, the mosaic of our autism community will reflect our vision of bringing Hope, Help and Understanding to our neighbors and, especially, our children." In reality, it's populated by a whole bunch of companies advertising services. One large plot actually does link to a story of a family dealing with autism, but it links to a woman who has a new release of a book talking about that story. So essentially, the one "family" story is really an advertisement for a book.
Families who deal with autism are very often strapped for cash, paying for many therapies and equipment for home use out of pocket. Requiring a minimum donation of $100.00 to join this "community" in order to raise funds for the two organization seems counterproductive. It would be one thing to sell plots to advertisers to fund a community site, but to claim that buying a plot is creating a community is a misnomer at best, and I'm disappointed to see these organizations going this route to raise funds.
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Michael Fidler 
You can primarily blame me for the idea, positioning and the experience behind AutismTown.
I founded, manage and pretty much financed TalkAutism for the past 5 years to provide free TalkAutism communication and education services for the benefit of fellow families dealing with this disorder. I also am the father of a 14 year old with autism, and have prioritized families getting access to resources free of charge whenever possible.
We are very up front about the fact that AutismTown is a fundraising initiative, and we’ve made it so that the professionals earning their living from our families have a way to give back, gain exposure, and help make up a mosaic of the autism community. To clarify your comments, families can ‘join the AutismTown community’ free of charge – by providing their own family story, or join its ‘Next Parade’ to be alerted of new Family Spotlights or even win autism-related prizes per e-scavenger hunts. And the pricing structure to contribute to AutismTown is same as the Million Dollar Home page, with each pixel costing a dollar and the minimum purchase being 100 pixels / 100 dollars; the main difference between being that all proceeds benefit autism technologies and research.
We have great abilities to provide other important technologies which can assist families dealing with autism, and are passionate to do so. Unless we get a windfall somewhere else (and we are very active in seeking grants), we need to hope that innovative programs like http://www.autismtown.org can help us provide additional solutions for our community. I invite you to peruse the other related technology services we provide which are all contingent on funding to do so: 1) disaster relief for families (www.autismcares.org ), 2) free personal health record service (www.mychildshealthrecord.com ), 3) a new imaging modality (www.bicapture.com ) which can help families and schools save money, get professional help remotely, or of course 4) http://www.talkautism.org .
Thanks again for your comments.
Ron Oberleitner
TalkAutism General Manager
admin@talkautism.org
Ron,
I would have had far less of a problem with a joint effort that was upfront in its presence as a fundraiser. As it stands, there really is nothing about the site that comprises a “community” other than a community of advertisers. There is nowhere that I was able to find on the site for families to view other families’ stories, other than to submit their email address to receive communications from the site.
I agree that funds are needed to assist families, but I think that the site is misleading. While it appears with the site design and press release that it’s geared toward building a community, it’s really about making money, and uses the buzzword of the moment in an attempt to lure people in.
I have been a longtime supporter of autism causes, as it touches my family as well, and so I was even more disappointed to see TalkAutism and Cure Autism Now using the term “community” in such a fashion.