Hybrid economies Lessig, L 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?