Comments on: Just freewheeling about buying and selling

By: N:Sight Research » Blog Archive » The chances of the web 2.0 enabled world

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:35:08 +0000

[...] abundance. This leads to another great post of JP Rangaswami discussing the failures of the “scarcity economics“: You see, scarcity economics is about hiding needles in haystacks; abundance economics is [...]

By: The chances of the web 2.0 enabled world at Discovering the Starfish

The chances of the web 2.0 enabled world at Discovering the Starfish — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:49:42 +0000

By: Alice Bachini-Smith

Alice Bachini-Smith — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:40:48 +0000

Well, this is how the world looks from my farmers’ market stall, anyway. The fruit & veg people have guaranteed business, those of us who make stuff have to find out what customers like and want, and keep working on it, or we wouldn’t survive. Luckily we get to talk to them in person every time they buy anything, which helps a lot :)

By: @phynbarr

@phynbarr — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 09:56:56 +0000

This certainly rang bells with me. I’m all for transparency and more people knowing. In the past knowledge has been power and the most powerful have been those gatekeepers to knowledge. “Pay me (attention / money / in kind) and I will graciously share my knowledge with you. If the web is sustainable and can be maintained as an open forum then that attitude has to go the way of all past ideas and attitudes.

Maybe it is coincidental that at a time when knowledge is beginning to flow freely that “The Powers That Be” appear to be struggling to contain and “manage” it. I am thinking particularly of recent news stories of keeping records of _every_ text and email message

By: Balaji Sowmyanarayanan

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:54:07 +0000

Very interesting attempt to ‘boostrap’ an Abundance Economy from Scarcity economy using the the ‘future is here’ as the bootloader.

Read with the next post ‘Invented Here’, I’m tempted to stretch the boot analogy further:
Is Financial Crisis = Blue Screen Of Death.( Wrong Drivers ran amok?)
Stretching it a bit more, is the Abundant Economy the Opensource equivalent? Again is a multi-boot option possible? [It is no coincidence that multi-boot is an enabler and result of Opensource. Multiboot is about choices]

Are Abundance Economy and Scarcity Economy mutually exclusive?
The quintessential corner retail store in Scarcity Economy indeed is a (virtual) abundance provider. Abundance Economy is driven by filters( eg. authenticity ) – a scarcity mechanism.

This is getting too yin-yang-ish already.
Disclaimer: This comment is provisional ;)

By: DE

DE — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 15:53:07 +0000

The difficulty is that one person can sell a product, but you need a full trust chain to sell a service. And its usally a service that replaces the seller’s scarce product isn’t it?

In the sellers world, I would buy a car that a seller wanted me to buy. In an abundant world, I select a service that allows me to use a car when I need it. Pay as I go. I never asked for ownership of a product, so why do I need to buy my transport.

But unless we recreate the brand images of the sellers world, we have to accept that services are harder to create and maintain and therefore trust. Thats why many companies sell cars, but there are fewer rental services. You need local knowledge, and trust to do that.

By: JP

JP — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:28:37 +0000

Epona, the tiny mammals are here. It’s our turn. Our turn to be the tiny mammals.

By: Epona

Epona — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:14:25 +0000

Very thought provoking stuff JP. It has all been in the air for some time, hasn’t it…scattered evidence that the world is changing which the credit crunch has pushed us towards linking up: Web2, open-source & collaboration+zero growth economy (as a good thing) & re-evaluating what is important. I have lost half of the money my mum left for my kid’s education on the stock market crash, but in this new place – ‘beyond the water’, as you suggest, I keep reminding myself not of the loss, but of the love I have for my children whom I would rather have than any money… so if the money doesn’t matter ..(it is hard to say that) what else doesn’t matter and what are the other elements of the new world that are there just beyond us. If we are moving beyond the age of the dinosaur… where are the tiny mammals hiding that will change the world?

By: David Tebbutt

David Tebbutt — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 08:52:27 +0000

@carole – I think QWERTY was invented as an artifical device to stop early typewriter keys sticking. If the popular keys were too close, they’d keep clashing.

@JP – interesting post. I’m going to read it again but initial reaction is along the lines of: the removal of the ‘bargaining position’ drops potential income towards zero. We need to bargain with something and, I guess, the most honest thing is our time. The revenue level will depend on the value placed by the buyer on our skills/knowledge. But, reading that, I’m not sure I’ve added much. Sorry. I’ll think on…

By: Carole Cohen

Carole Cohen — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 23:03:48 +0000

I agree with you about most of this; we can change the paradigm on economics. Well, we could if we started a revolution of sorts. But one thing is unclear. The Qwertying, as you refer to the seller buyer relationship. I could be wrong, but the order of the keys just makes it easier to communicate no? If you are saying the seller’s set the rules, that’s a different story. @gapingvoid on Twitter sent me here and I’m glad he did. I will read it again.