Wikinomics Chapter 4

Now this is interesting. On-line marketplaces where searchers for answers and solvers of problems come together for R&D answers seems almost to be the natural consequence of the dynamics of intrinsically motivated individuals possessing the ability to instantly connect with people and corporations around the world who are themselves in search of new talent and ideas. Working in a field that is fiercely competitive—the broadcast television industry—I try to imagine a world where such an ideagora might exist to, say, develop new programming ideas, research capabilities or promotional opportunities. In 2010 it is hard to envision such a world. I just do not see the general business model of local television stations changing very much. A station might out-source certain types of production, or use barter agreements in order to include strong syndicated programming in their line-up. The local television industry is in many ways a zero-sum game. The number of viewers at a given times of the day and year tend to remain fairly constant; the only way for a station to gain audience is for another station to lose audience as the size of the audience pie never really changes much. The distribution of ad dollars within a market is also a zero-sum game. An advertiser will have only a given budget to spend so for one station to receive a better share of the budget, another station must receive a smaller share. Zero-sum situations do not seem to lend well to open-source sharing!


The advertising industry as a whole, however, frequently out-sources with free-lance writers and producers, not to mention media planners and buyers. It is much easier to envision an InnoCentive type of on-line community in which advertisers could anonymously tap into a broad community of independent providers. But of course they really could not be completely anonymous. It would be a bit difficult to write copy for an unknown product!

This concept of ideagoras does completely change the requirements to develop a small business. High out-of pocket costs have traditionally been a significant barrier to entry for many industries. But what could not be done 10 years ago, is easily done today. In 2010 anyone with an internet connection can operate an on-line business. They can use Linux as their operating system, an on-line ordering system, dramatically reducing the need for employees required for phone-based or brick and mortar businesses, not to mention the ability to operate with little to no inventory costs. Kind of reflects a reality where IP is really just a commodity like anything else. There is a part of me that finds that scary. But I grew up in a world without cell phones or computers. The N generation by contrast has never known a time they didn’t have instant connection to their friends, parents and the internet community at large. They don’t believe in IP the way their parents do. They think music should be available on-line for free not to mention movies, games and other forms of on-line entertainment. This is not a copyright generation. But I believe that because of the deeply-rooted capitalistic animus of corporate America, it will likely be the children of the N generation that best exploit the economic and social advantages of true ideagoras in any given industry.