duminică, 23 ianuarie 2011

Self programmable


Many people are hostile to law and regulation: libertarian computer pioneers because they want a free market, upholding the Internet’s original gift economy and banks and business interests because they resent government’s attempts to regulate content and tax e-commerce. They both want to keep government out of the Internet, even though for quite different reasons.

The Internet’s ad hoc, flexible, consensual structure offers powerful lessons in business. It is a prototype of the way companies will have to operate in the future. The consensus stems from a shared purpose: the creation of a network that allows easy communication. This is in part a technical vision, and it requires deep knowledge of computer science. But it is also an ideological one, requiring a humanistic commitment to freedom of expression and to a medium of communication that rises above the interests of government and commerce. An ethic of collaboration and open discussion around a common purpose is an extraordinarily powerful and creative force.

New business models imply new revenues patterns. These new cross-industry production hybrids are being matched by cross-industry hybrids in terms of revenues. In many cases, the production hybrid is created mainly in order to exploit new sources of revenue. [1] Profits do not come from scale or volume, but from continuous discovery of links between needs and solutions, for which customers pay a premium. Workers become problem-solvers, problem-identifiers, and brokers of information. Services and goods are no longer distinct categories, and a quickly-shrinking share of production costs actually are paid to production workers.[2]

The new economy is based on information, which workers must navigate, focus, and organize. Dynamic information means that labor must be self-programmable, making talent the key resource. Innovation is the product of intelligent, collective labor, best produced by open-source networks of production, collaboration, and interaction – with products, services, and customers. The new division of labor is of cooperation in innovation, and competition in service and application of knowledge. The view of creative production is broadened, suggesting that the development of the internet and its technologies are themselves a function of open-source art and the creative work of hackers.[3]


[1] HOWKINS, John, “The Creative Economy. How people make money from ides”, London Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, London, 2001, p.196
[2] REICH, Robert, “The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century  Capitalism”, A. A. Knopf, New York, 1991
[3] CASTELLS, Manuel, “The Internet Galaxy: Reactions on the Internet, Business, and Society”, Oxford University Press, New York, 2001