Online Economies-COM125

The Economies of Online Cooperation
If I understand correctly, the driving force behind Web 2.0 is gift economies. Wikipedia describes gift economies as a “social theory in which goods and services are given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future quid pro quo.” I feel that this is the most attractive feature that the internet has to offer. The Internet’s free information and free services as well as its social networking aspect have touched our world in so many ways.

Consider the person who purchases a product which they “think” is broken; an inexpensive item the purchaser has paid only a few bucks for. Ten or fifteen years ago, if you either couldn’t figure out how to use it or if it was broken, you would probably just toss it out. Today, you can simply send an e-mail to the company requesting information, access a list of frequently asked questions, or even participate in a live chat. If you lose the directions for a product, you can simply download a new set. Remember that Rubik’s cube you had when you were young? If you can’t remember how to solve it, you can just download a new set of directions or visit one of many sites devoted to showing you how it can be solved. All of this is of course, done for free.
Most of the companies existing today have chosen to maintain a website with a page on the website devoted to helping customers with repairs or customer service issues. A nice complement to these websites is the development of networking sites and bloggers who offer advice to the public. Why do they offer this free advice? Is it frustration with getting help from the company compelling them to share their solutions? Perhaps they were looking for the company website and chose to explore the other ‘hits’ that came up with the company website.
My feeling is that people learn from each other. We can never presume to see a complete set of perspectives on a product, nor can we expect to have experienced all of its problems. People form groups in order to give information, get information or to collaborate. Groups may start out as a handful of people who simply couldn’t find out enough information about a product so they thought brainstorming was the way to go. Others are formed from self-made experts who want to share what they know (AKA show off their knowledge base.) I think sites like comp.sys.laptops site mentioned by Kollock in his article The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace, is one of these sites. Still others are formed because learning is a two-way street. It is a little known fact that teachers learn more when they teach than they did when they were learning to teach. I think this is the real reason people form groups. They know that they knowledge they will gain is worth the time commitment.
The instructor for my class Virtual Worlds in Organizations (COM483) has put this principle into effect. He has a section on the UBLearns website called “students helping students”. What this does is offer students the opportunity to offer advice, receive advice, and share observations. What it also does is create an open learning environment for both parties. It really enhances the learning environment. The teacher gets a first hand look at what his students are having trouble with and also offers a window into how students perceive things. Students can choose to contribute or elect not to (no quid pro quo.) The teacher monitors the site and makes corrections when necessary. It is free and bears no preconceived notions or expectations. In other classes this could even eliminate a student's need for a tutor. It's a win-win situation for everyone because we all learn at the same time.


Citations:
Wikipedia Gift Economies- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economies

Rubik's Solver.com, 2007 -http://www.rubikssolver.com/

Saxton, Greg, 2008, Virtual Worlds in Organizations, UBLearns -https://myub.buffalo.edu/course/pw/scripts/crs_sched.cgi?switch=showclass&semester=fall&division=1&dept=COM&regnum=037796

Kollock, Peter (draft), 1999, The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace -https://ublearns.buffalo.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_61661_1%26url%3d