Shaping Network Society

10 Comments Posted on June 23rd, 2009 by Philipp

The Economics of Abundance

As you are waiting for your Amazon Prime Shipment of Chris Anderson’s Free: The Economics of Abundance and Why Zero Pricing Is Changing the Face of Business, read an excerpt in Wired.

Our brains seem wired to resist waste, but we are relatively unique in nature for this. Mammals have the fewest offspring in the animal kingdom, and as a result we invest enormous time and care in protecting each one so that it can reach adulthood. The death of a single human is a tragedy, one that survivors sometimes never recover from, and we prize the individual life above all.

As a result, we have a very developed sense of the morality of waste. We feel bad about the unloved toy or the uneaten food. Sometimes this is for good reason, because we understand the greater social cost of profligacy, but often it’s just because our mammalian brains are programmed that way.

Or go back to my last blog-entry on the topic.

PS: If in Europe, go for the UK edition because it will be published 5 days before the US edition.

Please share:

http://www.bcg.com/about_bcg/si/si_mission.html Sofia

I loved this excerpt and cant wait for the book!!

His framework for scarcity vs abundance is great food for thought.

Scarcity
Rules: Everything is forbidden unless it is permitted.
Social model: Paternalism (“We know what’s best”)
Profit plan: Business model
Decision process: Top-down Organizational structure: Command and control

Abundance
Rules: Everything is permitted unless it is forbidden.
Social model: Egalitarianism (“You know what’s best”)
Profit plan: We’ll figure it out
Decision process: Bottom-up
Organizational structure: Out of control

http://www.philippmueller.de/ Philipp

Taking up your idea of the bottom up decision making process, the idea of “fluid authority” comes to mind (authority flows to where the decision can best be made). However, how could we operationalize that? We were able to install such a constitutive principle in European Union decision making (subsidiarity: decisions have to be made at the lowest level where they can be effectively be made), but fluid authority seems more complicated – any ideas?

http://www.bcg.com/about_bcg/si/si_mission.html Sofia

I loved this excerpt and cant wait for the book!!

His framework for scarcity vs abundance is great food for thought.

Scarcity
Rules: Everything is forbidden unless it is permitted.
Social model: Paternalism (“We know what’s best”)
Profit plan: Business model
Decision process: Top-down Organizational structure: Command and control

Abundance
Rules: Everything is permitted unless it is forbidden.
Social model: Egalitarianism (“You know what’s best”)
Profit plan: We’ll figure it out
Decision process: Bottom-up
Organizational structure: Out of control

http://www.philippmueller.de Philipp

Taking up your idea of the bottom up decision making process, the idea of “fluid authority” comes to mind (authority flows to where the decision can best be made). However, how could we operationalize that? We were able to install such a constitutive principle in European Union decision making (subsidiarity: decisions have to be made at the lowest level where they can be effectively be made), but fluid authority seems more complicated – any ideas?

Sofia

Question on fluid authority:

How does one know “where the decision can best be made”? (Emphasis on “where”)

The frontline manager can see the details, but the senior executive can see the big picture. Who can make the best decision?
Sofia

Question on fluid authority:

How does one know “where the decision can best be made”? (Emphasis on “where”)

The frontline manager can see the details, but the senior executive can see the big picture. Who can make the best decision?
Sofia

I got curious and googled “fluid authority”

It led me to UC professor Suarez-Villa’s website which is full of interesting stuff.

Check it out: http://www.technocapitalism.com

http://www.philippmueller.de/ Philipp

good questions! I think I would trace the term to Hardt and Negri’s book Empire (2000), they use it in a slightly different way, as in authority has become fluid (and is more difficult to control), however, if we turn this around and ask, how can we actually create a governance structure that functions along that analogy, we are at least searching in the right domain.

Not sure if such a governance structure is really possible, because it would have to resolve more than the big picture vs. view from the trenches epistemological challenge (politics, incommensurabilities, etc.)

In a way the google link algorithm tries to do that, but if you think about it, it is pretty conservative (if you have more links pointing your way, your authority increases), so basically it rewards “age.” This blog is clearly profiting from it.

Sofia

I got curious and googled “fluid authority”

It led me to UC professor Suarez-Villa’s website which is full of interesting stuff.

Check it out: http://www.technocapitalism.com

http://www.philippmueller.de Philipp

good questions! I think I would trace the term to Hardt and Negri’s book Empire (2000), they use it in a slightly different way, as in authority has become fluid (and is more difficult to control), however, if we turn this around and ask, how can we actually create a governance structure that functions along that analogy, we are at least searching in the right domain.

Not sure if such a governance structure is really possible, because it would have to resolve more than the big picture vs. view from the trenches epistemological challenge (politics, incommensurabilities, etc.)

In a way the google link algorithm tries to do that, but if you think about it, it is pretty conservative (if you have more links pointing your way, your authority increases), so basically it rewards “age.” This blog is clearly profiting from it.

www.philippmueller.de

The Economics of Abundance