10
It takes a village to make a mall.
— Kevin Kelly
The Internet changes the dynamics of business by relocating the marketplace squarely back in the middle of the town commons. Conversations flow from customer to customer, from vendor to customer. Some are about the weather, others are about the businesses hawking their wares in the surrounding stalls. It’s this buzz of discussion and laughter that feeds the marketplace. It’s about social flux and people connecting, and as such, it makes the commons a pleasant place to do business.
The commons is a microcosm of the village, the setting for all the connections that make daily life bearable as well as possible. It takes a village to create The WELL, Red Hat, eBay, Salon or any kind of business where people linked to each other. As we’ve said throughout this book, building a business in commonspace requires connections between people and information. But it also requires the collective spirit that the village commons represents. And hopefully, it requires a business vision that looks more like the marketplace in the town commons than the food court in the mall.
The question is, what do businesses in commonspace look like? Can you actually make a living and pay the bills with the work you are doing in commonspace?
Of course you can. You can make a good living in commonspace. Making money online doesn’t just have to be about fantasy-IPO-overheated-stock-market money. There is money to be made running small online businesses from basements. There is money to be made through online advertising, from marketing products built of bits or atoms, and from offering services ranging from file downloads to grocery delivery. This doesn’t change the fact that entirely too many companies are gleefully burning their way through hayracks of VC money, or that not every Internet CEO will one day be a billionaire. But some commonspace businesses are succeeding on their own terms and are doing so because they speak the language of the village.
As it is with the village, not everyone makes their living in the same way. There are some businesses that make their living solely from commonspace – connecting, aggregating, collaborating and collectivizing. But there are also businesses that draw on the collective power of the virtual village to support their real-world work. By drawing on the group mind, they improve the ways they produce goods and offer services to individuals. Whatever the case, solid business opportunities exist for those who understand the importance of the village, and those who are willing to engage in the conversation of the marketplace on its own terms.
Yes, Virginia, there are real business models in commonspace. Just look …
Pay at the Door
How did the first online communities pay the bills? By charging admission.
Throughout the 1980s, online communities were popping up all over the place. The megasized commercial online services – CompuServe, The Source, Prodigy, AOL – were thriving. Every North Ame