Life & Research Notes

Raph Koster, author of Theory of Fun which we read in Henry’s class, has a short, thoughtful piece on the economic and social effects of CopyBot, a hack on Second Life that allows people to duplicate any object. His conclusion is in line with some of the discussion lately here in the PLW:

Microtransactions for digital assets and virtual goods is a rising, potentially multibillion dollar industry. To succeed, entrepreneurs who are building networked systems based on user content . . . must realize that anything displayable is copyable; the value lies instead in service and in server-side functionality. Content is like songs around a campfire: destined to be enjoyed for free. Those who build businesses around hosting campfires would be wise to focus on making the campfire experience great, rather than charging listeners by the song. (full article)

In designing OPENSTUDIO we’ve experimented with simple models for small transactions trading in digital content, and to a lesser extent with the same for exchange of services. On the content side we’ve found ourselves wandering into the territory of DRM, licenses, creative commons, and participatory media. These are all relevant data points in a struggle to understand how to define ownership of digital media that is both effortlessly copyable yet paradoxically often fleeting and ephemeral.

I’m working in contracts as an attempt to understand the service side, to decouple services from any specific economic systems, communities, mediums, or infrastructures, and to create the standalone endpoint at which people come together to create and bind themselves to their own lightweight, private laws written in the community’s own vernacular. If the term microtransaction refers to mini-payments, then let’s claim the term microcontract to describe these mini-agreements. While media companies should follow Koster’s advice and try to make their campfires comfy, I’m happy to wander among the fireflies.

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