November 2024
Welcome to Frankly! We’re happy you’re here.
Dear community leaders,
I have exciting news! We’ve launched Frankly, a new video conversation platform now in closed beta. Frankly builds upon the foundation of Kazm Video, which is sunsetting as we transition to this next phase. We are granting existing Kazm Video clients early access to Frankly during this beta phase.
Important: If you have any data on talk.kazm.com that you’d like to keep, please download it before December 3 2024. After this date, the Kazm Video conversation platform will no longer be accessible.
Harvard acquired the Kazm Video technology with a vision of transforming how we engage in dialogue across society. We are in the process of making the code open source, in order to enable a global community to build and expand upon tools for constructive conversation that bridge divides and catalyze solutions.
Frankly is operated by the Applied Social Media Lab (ASML) at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. ASML is a forward-thinking initiative focused on developing solutions that address critical challenges in social media and foster public interest. The project is co-developed with Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, founder of Creative Commons, Deliberations.us and Equal Citizens.
The foundation for Frankly, Kazm Video, was founded by Ben Turtel & Danny Franklin of Lightning Rod Labs. Over the past year, we have collaborated closely with their team to ensure a smooth transition of Kazm Video into this new iteration.
What’s Changed?
We’re excited to announce that Frankly is free to use during the beta phase!
We have maintained the core functionality you’re familiar with, including integrated event agendas, hostless events, smart matching, and livestream capabilities. While those core features remain unchanged, we have made improvements to the platform’s stability and performance. We also have a new Privacy Statement and Terms of Service which will govern use of the new platform.
During this development phase, hosted events on Frankly will temporarily be limited to 8 people, and organizations will not be able to collect donations from within the platform.
How to Join the Beta
- Visit app.frankly.org to register for a new Frankly account
- Email us at hello@frankly.org with:
- The email address you used to register
- A note mentioning you were a Kazm Video client
- Your request for beta access
- We’ll authorize your account for community creation (typically within 1-2 business days)
- Once approved, log back in and you’ll see a “Start a community” button
- Use this to set up your community and begin hosting events
Looking Ahead
We’re evolving our platform by transitioning to an open-source model that welcomes global contributors to expand and adapt this framework. In addition to preparing for this transition to open-source, we are working hard to redesign Frankly to be more intuitive and adaptable, and we are partnering with dialogue experts to ensure our platform embodies best practices in facilitating constructive conversations.
While we work to improve the platform, the ASML team and I hope you will seize this current offering as an opportunity to help us shape the future of the platform.
Thank you for your dedication to improving online deliberation and discourse. We look forward to working with you as we build this next chapter together and hope you’ll find that Frankly is already on its way to becoming a major force in improving our discussions online.
For any questions about the transition or assistance getting set up on Frankly, please reach out to us at hello@frankly.org.
Best,
Samantha Shireman & the Frankly Team