Hybrid economies

Lessig, L. 2008. Remix: making art and commerce thrive in the hybrid economy. Bloomsbury: London.

Online Economies

Commercial economy:

Money at their core.

Products and services have economic value.

Amazon.com

Sharing economy:

Does not seek to create a profit.

Relies on relationships within a community.

Wikipedia.com

The Hybrid economy

Builds on the commercial and sharing economy.

As Lessig says it is either a commercial entity that aims to take value from a sharing economy or

It is a sharing economy that builds a commercial entity so that it is able to support its purpose.

THE HYBRID ECONOMY

Free software

Free Software is the hybrid idea.

Sharing open-source software instead of keeping codes private as commercial companies do.

Engineers can volunteer to build on software or modify it.

Redhat – provides open source software information to enterprise communities.

Other types of hybrids:

Community spaces

Collaboration spaces

Communities

Community Spaces

From the beginning the internet has created space for interaction and sharing.

Sharing community spaces have stayed clear of commercial entities for reasons but hybrids have been able to monetize their sites without loosing users.

Dogster Built by dog lovers – contains photos,

forums, classifieds, diaries, treats and more.

Supports itself through advertisement.

The site leverages community of conversation around pets (sharing) and produces a revenue (commercial entity).

Craigslist Launched in 1995 by Craig Newmark.

Enabled people to post advertisements for free.

In 2006 it had reached more than 400 cities around the world.

99% of the sites content is free.

Ads for jobs in 11 cities and apartments in New York are not advertised for free.

Flagging.

Allows for the community to judge what content is wanted.

If people are controlling the site this gives them trust and they feel as if this is a real community.

After hurricane Katrina there was an influx of advertisements.

Youtube One of the fastest growing websites.

Again users have the control.

Very nature of user-generated content.

Community of sharing, share to Facebook, share to blogs and many other sites. This is the value

Advertising brings in revenue.

Because this is a Sharing economy that lends leverage from a commercial entity users will get frustrated if there are too many adverts. There needs to be a suitable balance.

Collaborative Spaces

Different from community spaces in that people participating in this space feel they are there to build something together.

Visible community with a clear focus of work.

Yahoo Answers! Answer and question site launched by

Yahoo!

As of April 2008 – 35, 411, 866 questions and 35, 411, 851 answers.

Millions of volunteers answering other peoples questions

Yahoo introduced the point system as an incentive.

Although some questions and answers are quite trivial there are many questions and answers that prove to be helpful.

Wikia Jimmy Wales founder of Wikipedia

produced a site called Wikia.

Platform for developing and hosting community based wikis.

Wikis can be anything that does not fall into the realm of encyclopaedia.

Added advertising to the site which brings in revenue.

Groups can share information about anything. – Wikis about football clubs or different television shows.

Users bring in and build on it together. They get no compensation.

Do the builders of these wikis realise that Wikia can grow rich off their creative efforts?

Other collaborative spaces:

Slashdot- commenting on comments technology

Usenet – where people voluntarily help people with problems on their pc. This is great news for Microsoft as they are not compensating them.

Communities

The other two types of hybrid economies were referred to in ‘spaces’ meaning that it is more of a narrower sense of community.

Communities then refer to places that aspire to be more than just a ‘space’.

Second Life

The online version of your life.

You buy pay for things just like in the real world.

Second lifers contribute code.

Built software that make a better life.

Self –governance.

World of Warcraft

Same idea as Second Life but takes place with in a mystical world.

Learning the benefits of community.

Will the hybrid economy continue...

Commercial and sharing economies gave rise to the hybrid but it is crucial that they are kept separate to maintain value.

Giving people what they want and getting a profit for it.

Because there is some commercial sense to this economy it needs to be careful not to exploit its communities.

Social contract between companies and users.

Over advertising = Adblock Plus

Co-existing and Crossing over

Commercial and sharing economies can exist separately.

Crossing over economies is possible.

QUESTIONS:

1. In a hybrid economy is it the “free ride” concept or are both parties benefitting?

2. Will hybrid economies be able to keep their balance between commercial and sharing ?

3. And if they can will there still be space for commercial economies on the internet?