Voluntary Economies v0.2

Slide 1: Voluntary Economies Reinier Zwitserloot “Monetizing the long tail: Voluntary Economics” - oxymoron? - economists like to say that people act in their own self-interest. - the ‘divide 10 dollars’ game.

Slide 2: Unfortunately, we aren’t all like this guy! What is it? Shopping example. Hint that if it would work, it would be very eficient. photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eltonmelo/141937704/

Slide 3: Lots of places read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honour_System People are basically decent

Slide 4: leadin: Who has read freakonomics?

Slide 5: Paul Feldman, Freakonomics bagle guy Photo credit Stephanie Asher: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephanieasher/305177480/

Slide 6: Peer production and donations. time = money. Penguin FLOSS Linux

Slide 7: wikipedia, value being created, voluntarily money is necessary at least for maintaining the site cleaning up on donations

Slide 8: Radiohead was one of the first major bands to break away from their label and oer up their album on a voluntary basis. Music is becoming a commodity/gift and no longer the primary source of revenue. Prince is giving away his CDs to people visiting his concerts. Classical orchestras are oering free downloads to get young people interested in classical music.

Slide 9: RIAA / MPAA Taris on empty CDs, DVDs Do not pay artists Usually nearly 0% of the money got by these associations ends up with the original artists involved. http://www.theseminal.com/2007/10/02/the-era-of-free-music-is-upon-us/ http://www.theseminal.com/2007/10/09/the-anti-piracy-equation-just-doesnt-add-up/

Slide 10: Live Gigs http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=wq.essay&essay_id=288755 Concert tickets are very expensive, and there’s a black market. Clearly room for improvement here - clearly people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars, so why isn’t it going to the artist? photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andih/670002392/

Slide 11: Oink http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oink%27s_Pink_Palace http://www.demonbaby.com/blog/2007/10/when-pigs-fly-death-of-oink-birth-of.html

Slide 12: Web comics - they need some voluntary economics, as ads don’t work.

Slide 13: http://www.falter.at/web/wwei/detail.php?nr=5266 Becoming more and more popular. Terra Bite, Kirkland: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003558690_terrabite06e.html same for: Der Wiener Deewan: "All you can eat - pay as you wish"

Slide 14: Real life tipping photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/consumatron/237888785/

Slide 15: Small change tips. Busking. photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fabiovenni/62928630/

Slide 16: Crowdsourcing Wired “People Power”: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/people.html hijacked marketing term photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/solidether/1084349065/

Slide 17: Even freelancers who let their contractors pay at will. Pentascope and the likes Not many people will know this. article: http://www.nrcnext.nl/loopbaan/article811677.ece picture Alper Çugun (www.alper.nl)

Slide 18: Serial Novel, In 2000, King picked up The Plant again and started to publish it as an electronic serial. The first part (matching the 1982 story) was put on his own web site for anyone to download. He also said that he wanted everyone that downloaded the story to pay him $1 either before or after reading it. The idea was that if enough people paid up, more parts would be published in the same way. The limit was set at 75% of payers versus downloaders. The rate of paying customers decreased over time, but at least the first parts were over the set limit. As of mid-2001, six parts have been published (making up the first somewhat self-contained part of the novel). King has said that there will be more, but that some other projects will be finished first.

Slide 19: New Principles for a New Economy Talk about price discrimination - what is the principle behind: - sales. - why ryanair tickets get more expensive over time. - why most premium brands have a cheaper cousin. The previous new economy (bubble 1.0) would use the principles of the real world economy. Price Discrimination almost impossible on the web where you can find everything. (sites with coupon codes). NEXT for price discrimination.

Slide 20: is voluntary economics becoming an increasingly more important principle of economic organization? Price Discrimination works spectacularly well for voluntary economies. Subjectivity of Value (third world countries, poor v. rich people) + the notion that most things on the web have an eective replication cost of 0 means any money anyone would give is acceptable. this makes it futile to come up with a fixed price for any given good also dependent on local economic factors and digital divide (legal windows for 3 bucks) Use the ‘long tail’ of your client base - there are a few folks who -really- like your product. Enable them! photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gcf/50554895/

Slide 21: abundance of information it’s no use demanding payment upfront for musicians, newspapers, or even freelance professionals. there are some many available that you need to lure people in in another way. photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/curt/120926253/

Slide 22: Fame and fortune No, that’s not quite right, its...

Slide 23: Fame before fortune .. which is why micropayments don’t work. Fame = attention, and attention is very valuable. It’s relatively easy to monetize it, especially with voluntary economies.

Slide 24: Paradox Ask someone to obey a law which does not seem apparent - how do you get people to pay for a free thing? What have the previous examples taught us - what are the triggers we can distill from them?

Slide 25: Human face (fruitbox vs. same thing in sainsburys). Humans hardwired to be kind to individuals.

Slide 26: Peer Pressure. Bagel guy. Public donations. Tips (‘social laws’). Community (star trek enterprise continuation fund. Serenity buy-2-DVDs-plan). photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike-burns/7459087/

Slide 27: Rewards. Stephen King (plant). photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98277799@N00/169862815/

Slide 28: Get people emotionally involved. Make them want to support you. Radiohead nailed this one.

Slide 29: Is voluntary economies a side-eect of a good economy, e.g. is it a Luxury good? Is it necessary for a general amount of wealth to be present for people to make voluntary contributions? Possibly not. Voluntary economies are more eficient. Then again, on the surface it sure seems like it. Restaurants still get tipped in lean times. Open question.

Slide 30: Conclusion

Slide 31: http://www.epiphyte.net/SF/ old-fashioned-future.html cool short story about how voluntary economies can be really powerful: http://www.epiphyte.net/SF/old-fashioned-future.html http://tqft.net/wiki/Maneki_Neko also read up on Wikipedia lemma on Maneki Neko (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Maneki_Neko): “A raised right paw supposedly attracts money, while a raised left paw attracts customers.”

Slide 32: Image: random google image search, needs a better attributed one.

Slide 33: http://tipit.to/