How Internet Reputation Systems and The Online Coordination of Offline Life are Changing the Fundamental Structure of Society v1.0 28 Feb 2007 Joe Edelman <joe> on CouchSurfing Int’l & Emergency Communities CC-SA-BY

1. The Future of Work,
Fun, and Being Social
an introduction to the nascent adventure economy
or
How Internet Reputation Systems and
The Online Coordination of Offline Life are
Changing the Fundamental Structure of Society
v1.0 on 28 Feb 2007 Joe Edelman <joe.edelman@gmail.com>
CC-SA-BY CouchSurfing Int’l & Emergency Communities

2. TOC
1. Variety, Opportunity, and Choice
2. Street Culture & Hospitality
3. Social Networking with Strangers
4. The Adventure Economy
5. The “People, Opportunities, Trust”
Infrastructure

3. Imagine you had a
technology that could
divide up work

4. Imagine you had a
technology that could
find thousands of
interested people
and divide up work

5. What would it be like?
Instead of one person running a hostel for
money, you could find 1000 people in a city
who want to meet visitors, and they can share
the task by having tourists stay in their homes
every once in a while. (couchsurfing)
Instead of 100 people writing an encyclopedia,
one million people can share the task in a way
that is unnecessarily burdensome for any of
them. (wikipedia)

6. Chores
(preference identification
& task distribution)
Opportunities

7. Hard to get involved
(smaller tasks)
Easy to get involved

8. Here’s how it’s
done on wikipedia

11. Here’s how it’s done
on couchsurfing

13. Old Model New Model
A few people do all the work, Work is highly distributed,
and they work full time and members have more flexibility
You have to pay them You don’t have to pay them
It’s hard to get involved It’s easy to get involved
You’re supported by a few You’re supported by
people you know a legion of strangers
Brittanica Wikipedia
Hosteling Int’l CouchSurfing
Internet Explorer Firefox
Nightclubs Street Parties

14. that as among {A1 . . . A5 } the best agent for using the combination best 4agent.for us
that as among {A1 . . . A5 } the r1 , r is A2 Ass
In the past, our interactions and
also that as among the agents {A1 . . . also thatis the best, thethe sense that. ifA98 were
A9 }, A8 as among in agents {A1 . . A}, A8 i
use these resources, the social value of the product wouldthe social value of the pr
use these resources, be greater by some mea
careers have looked like this:
m than when, A2 , the best agent within Firm when, A2 , the best agent within Firm A
m than A, uses them.
Figure 1: Agents and Resources Separated In Different Firms Figure Figure 2: Agents and Resources In aIn DifferentEnterprise
1: Agents and Resources Separated Common Firms
Space
Peer production
r1 r1
community
r1
A1 A1
A2 r2 A2 A1 r2 r2
A3 r3 A3 A2 r3 r3
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household
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Not only is it unlikely that the two firmsonly is to the information two firms bes
each person hadNot will haveunlikely thatfewthat A8 is wil
access it only a the
the job, as I suggested inanddiscussion of information gains. Even if they doof inf
resources the projects: as I suggested in the discussion know
the job, the resources and
long as transaction costs associated with transferring the creativity of A8 with tran
long as transaction costs associated to Firm
the property in r1 and r4 their company or home ror school misapp
projects in to Firm B are greater than rm, creativity willB are great
the property in 1 and 4 to Firm be
When the firms merge, or when the agents and resources are when common
When the firms merge, or in a the agent

15. agent for using the combination r1 , r4 is A2 . Assume
. . A9 }, A8 is the best, in the sense that if A8 were to
e of the product internet is by some measure
The would be greater making it
thin Firm A, uses them. be part of more.
cheaper to
ent Firms Figure 2: Agents and Resources In a Common Enterprise
Space
Peer production
community
r1
A1 r2
A2 r3
A3 r4
A4 r5
A5
A6
r6
A7
r7
A8
r8
A9
r9

16. New Model
Work is highly distributed,
and members have more flexibility
You don’t have to pay them
Life is more
It’s easy to get involved adventurous.
You’re supported by
a legion of strangers &
Wikipedia
You can choose
CouchSurfing your own
Firefox adventure.
Street Parties

17. the internet enables
the Adventure Economy
(more later)

18. Street Culture
& Hospitality

19. New Model
It’s easy to get
involved
You’re supported by
a legion of strangers
Wikipedia
Global:
Helpers are
Local: CouchSurfing
on the
Real-life Firefox internet
connections
Street Parties

20. History of Real-Life Connections
People used to connect in the street, and live in tight-knit
communities. Being from the same town or congregation
was something in common, and a reason to trust someone.
People used to share more, and depend on each other. They
still do in the “third world”.
Television & the automobile destroyed these tight-knit
communities. It’s not just sharing of stuff that went out of
style: the sharing of love and attention and care went too.
Nowadays, people are more likely to think that everyone is
out for themselves.
see http://www.bowlingalone.com/

21. Imagine you had a
technology that could
find thousands of
interested people

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30. The Web of Content

32. (vs) The Web of Life

34. Doing Stuff
with Strangers

35. Economics
we all have stuff, and capabilities, to
offer each other
we all need certain things and have
certain preferences and wishes
how do we know where to use our
capabilities, get what we need, and
advance our wishes?

36. Economics: Three
Transaction Frameworks
Markets (buy it on the open market)
Firms, Households, and Clubs (get it from
within a cartel or group or corporation, to
which I belong)
Social networks (get it for free from my
neighbor)
Modified from http://www.slideshare.net/macloo/economics-of-social-production

37. collaborative
Clickworkers
projects Wikipe dia
Open Source
(by necessary trust) Flashmobs
Improv Ever ywhe
re
Free Hugs
High-trust
systems requi Burningman
re Pillow Fight Club
high-trust
technology Parkour
Online Dating
(i.e. reference Ride Sharing
s
an d contact CouchSurfing
control) Suicide Clubs

38. CouchSurfing References: A
reason to trust strangers
In the market, we trust strangers because
either (a) we can take them to court for
contract violation, or (b) they are under
pressure of being fired.
In social systems, and in CS and eBay, we
trust strangers because they have a
reputation, and they could lose it.

41. For economists:
see Ronald Coase, “The Nature of the Firm”
for situations when firms are more efficient
than totally free markets
see Yochai Benkler, “The Wealth of
Networks” for situations when social
networks are more efficient than either
firms or markets
efficient: means they meet our preferences
better and use fewer resources

42. For economists
“Prices facilitate exchange when information
is scarce and coordination difficult, when
goods are standardized and cheap...
Conversely, reciprocal exchange has been
preferred when trade involves a personal
interaction, and when goods or services are
unique, expensive, or have many dimensions of
quality.”
- Avner Offer, Between the gift and the market: the economy
of regard; Economic History Review, L 3(1997), pp. 450-476

43. Advantages
Efficiency & Power: Projects have access to the people who
choose to participate from a wider pool and for shorter times
and thus have better appropriateness. We can mobilize more
resources when we are not limited to our firm or household.
(i.e., “Cooperation Gain”)
Fun, Adventure, & Choice: People can make many more choices
at a finer level of granularity in their lives, and it’s more fun
and adventurous.
Quality: When each individual attends to a diversity of resources,
each resource is attended to by more people, and the overall quality
increases. Also: When individuals are able to change their minds about
what is best, and to mobilize diverse resources quickly in response to
new information, we all stand to benefit from this flexibility.

44. The Adventure Economy

45. The Adventure Economy
doing stuff with strangers
lots of people and resources available to you
choose your own adventure

46. The Vision:
Global Cooperation
Whatever you want to learn,
whatever you want to feel or do,
there are people on the internet
that will help you.

47. The Vision:
Local Cooperation
Whatever you want to learn,
whatever you want to feel or do,
there are people on your street, or
down your block that will help you.

49. Why is this happening?
The web makes modular tasks easy
to distribute to lots of people.
The web makes it easier to know
when to trust strangers.
--> the web makes it easier to help
each other.

50. Open Things
1983 - Open Software
2002 - Open Content
2007 - Open Life

51. Look for these
characteristics
task distribution
getting together with strangers
sharing our time, attention or stuff
creating networks

52. Infrastructure

53. Infrastructure.
These kinds of endeavors are popping up
everywhere.
Money, courts of law, prisons, and bank notes
are technologies that make the money
economy work.
Systems of trust, stranger-finding, and task
distribution like CouchSurfing are what make
the adventure economy work.

54. What is necessary?
A directory of people who are ready to
interact.
A good way of helping us specify what we’d
like to learn, feel, do, or share with others.
An open protocol that lets anyone with a
vision create local and global supportive
communities of trust.

55. What is necessary?
Internet suppliers for:
People (e.g. profiles)
Opportunities (e.g. location,
time, and interest search)
Trust (e.g. references)

56. What is necessary?
P.O.T.

57. What do we have?
100,000 programmers and designers in the
open source movement
1 million writers of blogs and wikipedia
lots of lawyers, economists, mathematicians,
scientists, activists
a bunch of interest-specific sites that are
already doing this

58. Conclusion

59. The web, and what it has to do with our capacity for fun and
adventure.
Task distribution & loose teams
Getting help from strangers
easier to get involved / included
20th century economic history: how we provision ourselves with
food, shelter, assistance, and love.
Examples of the change.
Infrastructural differences.
How CS fits in.

60. Barn Raising
highly distributed
nobody has to spend a long time at it
nobody has to get paid
challenges:
distributing tasks (like dishes at a potluck)
knowing who you can trust to come
getting everyone there at the same time
easier in a tight knit (e.g. Amish) community, where
citizens have flexible schedules and know each other

62. Get involved
join us at the center for adventure economics:
http://wiki.couchsurfing.com/Adventure_Economics
help us design the standards for interoperability
(people, opportunities, and trust) that power the
adventure economy
help us build a platform to enable and support the
sharing of love, time, knowledge, and basic needs,
locally and globally on a wide scale.

63. Adventure Economy People Power
Web of Life
Street Culture Hospitality
Open Life P.O.T.
(People, Opportunities, and Trust)
Choose Your Own Adventure