Three years ago, on 13 August 2012, we published our first article. Looking back over this time we have achieved a lot, but we still have a long way to go. Our initial goals when we started Pirate Times are still our core focus:

• More international awareness between different pirate parties.
• Spreading news internationally and sharing best practices regardless of borders.

Statistics

To date we have had 41 authors (+many guest authors) that have published 695 articles (26 translated to French, 24 to Spanish and 9 to Greek). In total we have written 601.936 words throughout these articles over the past three years.

Since the start of the year (2015) we have received 109.921 visits from 81 distinct countries. With 71% from North America and 24% from Europe it is clear that we need to widen our reach to other continents more actively (only 1% from Oceania and 1% from South America).

Our total visitor amount for our first year was ~85.000 and last year we achieved 81.708 visits. Thus we are clearly improving the amount of people reading our articles this year. These statistics only show visitors to our site. Many of our readers get our news through other sources (newsletter, rss, live.piratpartiet.se etc.)

GOALS for 2015 (progress)

At the start of each year the Pirate Times team discusses the plans and goals we have for the coming twelve months. 

• 100.000 visitors to our website -> we have had 109.921 visitors when writing this article. We already achieved our goal with several months left.

• 3.500 followers on both Facebook and Twitter (+50% follower increase) -> Currently 2.782 on Facebook and 2.482 on Twitter.

• Launch an API to help disseminate Pirate Party Information -> still in progress but nearing completion.

• New Website design -> not yet initiated.

• Attend the PPI conference in Warsaw, Poland -> due to changes in the organization e.g. several members leaving we didn’t prioritize this. However, the current PPI chair and vice-chair are both people from Pirate Times.

• Attend at least 5 non-pirate conferences -> 1/5 achieved when visiting the Internet Freedom Weekend.

• Offer some Pirate Times merchandize -> not yet initiated.

• Cover ALL elections where Pirates participate -> haven’t managed to cover all but most of them.

• Stabilize ES/FR/GR translations (at least some updates every month from each language) -> current re-structuring makes this a longer term plan.

• Add at least one more language to Pirate Times -> not yet initiated.

• Launch a Pirate Times podcast -> An “unofficial” one was launched to cover the Pirate Unicorn meetings.

• Publish 304 articles (average of 6 per week) -> 115 articles published over 225 days. We need to publish at least one article each day for the remainder to reach this goal. Seems like we will fall short here.

• Start a fundraising campaign to cover the costs of running Pirate Times as well as help with the expenses our members have getting to various events and conferences -> not yet initialized.

We’re doing good on some parts whilst falling behind on others. To help us reach all our goals we need your help!

You can join our team, help by spreading our articles over social media or donate through Flattr or Bitcoin.

More Reading

We previously summarized 2013 in two parts (part 1) (part 2). Our activity for the past year, 2014, was also reviewed. Finally you can take a look at some statistics for our two year anniversary.

About Josef Ohlsson Collentine

I’m a dual citizen (American/Swede) and try to integrate my reflections from a more global perspective if possible. I’m the organizational leader for Pirate Times and work actively to strengthen the pirate movement through this work as well as being the international contact for Piratpartiet (PPSE). Elected board member of PPSE for 2015-2018.
If you would like to ask me something I speak English, Swedish and Spanish. Find me on the links below

 

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Three years ago, on 13 August 2012, we published our first article. Looking back over this time we have achieved a lot, but we still have a long way to…