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These business models presume generosity – or at least some basic drive to share. Why not? Some anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists argue that humans are hardwired for generosity, that our propensity for sharing was inherited from our primitive ancestors. The economist Mancur Olson came to the same conclusion in his consideration of the rich man who provides a coastal community with a lighthouse: Even though it isn’t in the interest of an individual to pay for a public work, the benefactor is indirectly compensated through a boost in status.
— Mark Frauenfelder, Wired 8.07
Online, the only way to win is to give away as much power as you can. As fast as you can.
More specifically, you need to give power to your users, your community and your partners. You need to help them reach their goals. Help them make money. Help them find each other. You need to empower these people, and, in doing so, empower collective action. In turn, you’ll get the kind of respect, support and (yes) revenue you need to make it on the Internet.
For traditional organizations and businesses, this is the most confusing and scary rule of commonspace. Business, politics and even community building is about consolidating power, controlling what happens, and being in charge – isn’t it?
Not any more.
We all have the drive to be creative, to contribute and to succeed. As we leave our roles as drones behind, we realize that we can have all of these things and make a living. Having a job, participating in a community and reaching your goals isn’t about conformity anymore. And for more and more of us, it’s possible to pursue our passions as more than a sideline.
In many respects, the network makes this possible. It gives us the tools that make it cheaper to do what we want to do. It makes smaller, more focussed markets and communities possible. Most importantly, it gives us each other. You just do it.
Not to say that it’s easy. We all need the right tools to make the network dance. Helping each other to grow while simultaneously nurturing the collective requires the right context and a solid platform. This is where the ‘give power to get power’ rule comes in.
We talked briefly about the gift economy in Chapter 2 and pointed out that the most innovative parts of Net culture operate at least in part as gift economies. And we explained that even though gift economies and restricted economies are opposites in many respects, they always co-exist. The atmosphere of a gift economy in full gear is chaotic, noisy, and exuberant. A good analogy is the Mad Hatter’s unBirthday Party in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. People think they’re animals, animals think they’re people. (If you don’t see what this has to do with the Internet, do a search on ‘Anthromorphics’ sometime.) Everyone talks and sings at once, often in bizarre argots of their own devising. Welcome to the Infinite unBirthday Party.
Eric Raymond contends in ‘Homesteading the Noosphere’ (the sequel to ‘The Cathedral