Jack, Where was I heading with the "property and market" challenge?
Just to explore that path for a bit. Thanks for your contribution to
that.
> >And, the last issue for this post, to leave you with as a challenge
> >or puzzle is - figure out what property rights mean in such a system
> >and incorporate them into the system. My hint is to approach the
> >data/information/text as a marketplace and generate principles which
> >match the effective workings of a marketplace.
The present situation is that property rights in a text *for printing
or some extended physical form* reside in copyright law. The
marketplace principles embodied there is something like "without
protection of physical reproduction rights the author can't make
money in making (text) available and therefore won't unless these
rights are granted." There are other possible principles but this
one seems close enough to the marketplace formulation distinct, say,
from controlled, adminstered or bureacratic ones.
While Notes seems not to have these limits and everything is freely
available, Notes is mainly only working - as far as I know - within
fairly limited boundaries where there is a common goal or alignment
of some kind that sees the value of sharing information freely for
some common and greater end.
I am working on my next book and exploring ways to allow
participation via electronic media. I can see great value in
pursuing this path. I can also see that the work of formulating and
writing will not allow me to reap financial reward - and could even
give that away to others while excluding myself - if placed in the
public medium of Internet, Web sites or Notes.
Within a small community that honours some form of "property rights"
- whether of the individual or of the group itself - this could work
easily. Outside of such a community, the result might be more gain
for me - psychic and/or monetary - than if I protect it ... and it
might not. (There is no "economy" if everything is free. Even in an
ecology, everything isn't free.)
The "tragedy of the commons" needs to be addressed if you say that
property doesn't exist and that use is free to all.
It's important to distinguish between the physical or specific
expression and the ideas. Ideas are not protectable. Secrecy is the
only protection but, fortunately, secrecy also severely reduces the
value.
Text as physical production is protectable if extensive. But it's
not the protection that counts - not the legal one at any rate. It's
the social condition or norms that will count. If you refuse to
provide a return for my contribution of text, then I'll probably not
take the trouble. If you turn my production directly into you
profit without compensation to me, then I'll probably not share with
you in future.
"The text increasing in value" with development/transformation is
undoubtably valid and possible - and even the point - but for one
detail. As an author, I'm not interested in "the text", I'm
interested in that text which is connected to me in some useful way -
where the usefulness is growing.
Even on this list, their is a currency and some rules. (Some of
which you indicate in your response.) There are self-imposed
copyright rules. There are rules of value which excludes some
posting, however few. The currency is "other text" and its value.
That is, if no one posts, the list disappears. If only things get
posted which don't provide value to others, the membership
disappears. We could say that we are trading "text" and that, when
the balance of value of trade falls below a point, we leave the
marketplace all together.
It is the value that is added to my thinking that keeps me on the
list. The value is occasionally the result of a "direct hit" from
something that is said. Most often, it is the question, turn of
phrase, or implication that triggers some thinking and development in
me that wouldn't otherwise be triggered that provides the value.
(for instance, your response to my challenge)
My idea for exploring the electronic medium for my next book is that
the transformation that occurs from the dialogue, from the analysis
of text, will contribute signficantly to the value of the book that
results. Maybe an ideal would be that no "book" ever results - or
that many do - but that the text just keeps growing, developing and
getting richer over time.
> This transformation - which is the basis of wealth in a true economy - has
> no assignable value in the marketplace of Notes (read here any groupware),
> any more than public monuments do in the city square.
I think that you are wrong about "assignable value". I assign value
to text, participation in this list and the public monuments. That's
the point of a marketplace. To work out these individual and
changing value assignments on a continually changing basis.
For instance, the value of risking the financial gains of publishing
in ordinary ways may be less than experimenting with "publishing" in
a text/dialogue form for the reasons you say. However, I am aware
that there will be a cost to do that. Not only the original time -
now "money spent" - but the ongoing effort at administration,
nurturement, etc to keep a list alive and robust. Providing ongoing
value seems to be a major task and not merely a happy accident. I've
seen lists come and go in very short order that were started with
good intentions, great interest and high possibility.
I also see that most Notes applications have not solved the dilemna
outside of areas of common economic interest.
-- Michael McMaster Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk