What drives the culture of participation?

Filed in Uncategorized, November 7, 2005, 1:00 am by ,

1. First, Nicholas Carr, the naysayer of “IT does not matter” fame, kicked it off with a rant titled “Amorality of web 2.0“. It has caused quite a stir in the blogosphere. He does point out some fairly basic errors in the Wikipedia that should serve as food for thought for the Wikipedians. But it seems that the conclusions he draws are a non-sequitur. 2. Om Malik joined issue. We all know Om likes to have the last word, so he rejoined the issue. Some excellent links here including Jeff Jarvis’s. 3. Erick Schonfeld has a good rejoinder (read the comments as well).     Overall, you still don’t get a handle on what is driving this phenomenon.  The Linux/Apache communities  and the entire open source communities have already proven that  billions of dollars of economic value can be created. Now if you ask, who benefits, I think everyone does. Therefore, we can just analogize and say that – Web 2.0  does for the masses, what open-source has done for the technology folks. Better still, i think Web 2.0 does to any practitioner what open-source has done for the technology practitioner – the term practitioner standing for an active participant of any skilled activity be it politics or media or anything. I don’t think all rewards need to be monetary (again open-source has already proven that). Let us look at what Yochai Benckler has said in his brilliant paper “Coase’s Penguin“. He  has developed an equation that goes like this (I have made the equation a bit simpler than the original):

R(Rewards) = M(Monetary) + H(Hedonistic Gains) + SP(Socio-Psyhcological Rewards). 

M rewards are obvious. H rewards are for people who do something just for the pleasure of it. A majority of open-source programmers and many bloggers may fit this category. SP is actually a very interesting area. As an example, the myriad Blog Popularity ratings (technorati 100, feedster 500 etc.) satisfy this need somewhat in the blogosphere. A lot of work needs to be done in this area across the entire Web 2.0 world. In the physical world as well, when communities gather, money can be made (the company that provides lunch, banner advertisements,  meeting area, janitorial services..) and it does get made. So what is wrong in making money if you are able to architect communities like Flickr. In sum, I think the culture of participation taps into the innate gregarious nature of human beings and helps build virtual communities that benefits all of humanity. What is different in Web 2.0 is that we now have easily-accessible, mostly-free and very user-friendly tools to participate with. Notes:
1. I came across Coase’s Penguin via Mitch Kapor’s blog in the early part of this year. As Mitch says this paper is a bit dense ( I have read it 3 times already can’t say I have understood it 100%). Benckler’s concept of “commons-based peer production model”  provides an excellent framework for why open-source or in general the culture of participation works so well.

References:
1. Paul Graham, “The Sage of Silicon Valley” (my coinage) wrote a must-read essay on “What businesses can learn from open source” a while back. 2. Eric Steven Raymond’s Cathedral and the Bazaar. Brilliant essay on open source. He is one of the leaders of the open-source community. 4. Ross Mayfield wrote an excellent post “Wikimaniacs or Wikirealists” that has some relevant ideas.

Unsung Blogger of the Week #10

Filed in Unsung Blogger.., November 6, 2005, 1:17 pm by

This week’s featured blogger is a 24-year old from Malaysia –  Tariq Kamal.  His blog covers a variety of subjects including Malaysian politics. Text from the e-mail interview follows: 1. Please write a brief profile of you and your involvement with blogging. Well, I started blogging thanks to my girlfriend and a few of her
friends. I’ve been sporadically blogging since 2001, but this current
incarnation appeared around September 2004. It’s mainly commentary, really; just me yapping away on my blog, about anything I find interesting. For some reason some people like it.

2. How do you publicize your blog? I generally don’t, really. I mean, I try and get my entries sent to
Petaling Street (http://petalingstreet.org), which is a Malaysian blog
directory, but that’s generally it. Apparently being a contrary fellow
helps as well, because I’ve gotten more than a few hits by taking a
position opposite most of the blogging communities I am in touch with.

3. Which techniques have worked for you and which ones have not? Techniques? I haven’t really given it much thought. I generally avoid
trying to measure how popular my blog is, but occasionally being
contrary and a smartacre gets me linked. That’s a bit unreliable,
though.

4. What do you consider as your best post so far? You can include upto 3. Huh. Tough call. – ‘The Yet Another Ramadan Post, 2005’
(http://t-boy.blogspot.com/2005/10/yarp-2005-remember-forgotten.html) was pretty good. People liked that. [Good article. Good links as well. – Ed.]
– ‘We Don’t Need the Fucking Water.’
(http://t-boy.blogspot.com/2005/10/we-dont-need-fucking-water.html) was for a fellow blogger, and more or less a clubbing guide for newbies. I kind of liked it as well.

5.   What are your Top 5 Unsung Blogs ? (please include only those that are not in any Top 100/500 lists). Well, obviously some people deserve kudos. Let’s see: – Macvaysia (http://www.intellectualadventures.com/Macvaysia/) is a blog whose writing and knowledge, as far as I’m concerned, surpasses mine. He’s amazing and witty. And there are pictures of winsome girls in there somewhere. [make sure to read Macvaysia’s post on English Names in China. – Ed.]
– But Enough About You (http://isorule.blogspot.com/) is another
blogger I have to recommnd. Quintessentially Malaysian guy, even if he does live in London. He’s even honest enough to tell you that he’s there to talk about himself! What not to love?
– Life is Great (http://pickyin.blogspot.com/) doesn’t get as updated as regularly as before, but there are plenty of entries and book recommendations.
– The 20′ by 20′ Room (http://www.20by20room.com/) is a RPG blog, and talks about stuff I don’t usually talk about. But they’re well-written entries in there, and very thoughtful and clever. That’s it, really. Can’t think of any other blog right now that isn’t
either discontinued or wildly popular.

6.  What are your current book recommendations ? (1 or 2 is
sufficient). – Oliver Sacks — The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat.
– Bill Bryson — A Short History of Nearly Everything

Hard Landing – Review

Filed in Books,Management,Travel, November 5, 2005, 1:30 am by

Hard Landing is a must read for anyone who has some interest in travel industry, especially airplanes. Even as a business book, it is a recommended read.

This book reveals the real pressures on the players, how capital intensive the business is and how so many external factors can swing a company from bankruptcy to well-run. Even the slightest mistakes will not be tolerated – truly revealing how ‘tough’ an executive has to be in this market. At the same time, it is written like a novel and the story is told through the people who are the players. Its also amazing to realize how a handful of players shaped up this industry.

My experience has been that it is actually still true in the travel industry – it’s indeed a small world.

Delhi Blasts Commentary

Filed in General Interest, November 3, 2005, 11:00 pm by

Friendly spat going on between Dilip and Patrix about the connection to religion. I think Dilip is spot on. Why can’t we ditch the who-can -condemn-this-better game and talk about how we can work together to fix the problem. After all, muslims are as aghast as anyone else.

OfficeLIVE – Pre-emptive move by MS

Filed in Uncategorized, November 2, 2005, 11:41 pm by

There have been several thoughts about the evil empire’s next steps and strategy to dominate Web 2.0 and crush Google. My friend had a post wondering what the new sites were all about. Well, with the latest announcement about WindowsLive and OfficeLive, I am ready to place my bets with MS. Why? follow the money of course. Background: With the Google alliance with Sun, there has been several rumors that they will come up with an AJAXed Web2.0 version of OpenOffice, offer it for free thus hurting MS in the most profitable Office solutions. I think MS is taking a pre-emptive strike here by announcing OfficeLive. If Google/Sun offers this for free based on Ad revenue, the solution can only attract the personal and casual users for 2 reasons: 1.  Think of it: If I am writing a love letter, I wouldnt mind ads of cards, teddy bears or choclates coming up on the side. But if I am working on a technical architecture or business case document for my client, I sure dont want any ad to pop up, however relevant it is. 2. Privacy: I dont think many corporations would be happy to trust a 3rd party with the corporate documents and spreadsheets. This is where MS solution integrated with Sharepoint has advantages. Sharepoint is already sold well, by integrating the same with a web-based Office solution and charging the corporate on a per-user basis or no. of concurrent connections would be the killer. With the right pricing model, MS can make inroads into corporates and get them locked in. No ads, no privacy issues – the documents are still within the firewalls. Unless Google team comes with a killer idea/solution that can lock in the corporate world, MS would remain a clear winner. For now, MS would be organizing worlds information. Making it universally accessible and useful is where Google has a leg up and MS is still fighting. As the ancient chinese saying goes, we are truly living in interesting times !