Oliver Gassner: Digitale Tage

next09 has the term 'share economy' as a motto this year after featuring the 'live web' last year. - So it seems it styles its topic successfully after the newest trends mostly before they become trends.

While there seems to be a dichotomy between sharing (giving something away) and economy (selling something) I believe that only those two components make the net valuable and get it to work.

Sharing

Sharing seems to have been the basis of both ARPAnet and the Web wehen they were creted in the 60ies and in the late 80ies.

Both the sharing of computer resoucrces (ARPA) and information (WWW) form the basis of the respective inventions.

Software repositories as SIMTEL, ARCHIE and other Fileservers, Usenet and the Gopher-System were early examples on non-commercial sharing (ans structuring) of data and information.

While the first ideas about the value of the net were both academical and political people used the net from the beginning as peans of play and personal expression.

Business

In both cases though the 'energy' to expand the net and ist tubes' needed to be based on economical promises: That enterprises could use the net to deliver value both to their own structure by communicating better and to their customers by offering them to converse and buy through a new channel.

Digital goods like music or movies added to this business.

The net would by far not be as available as it is globally -and it would noot have gone mobile [which is specially valuable for developing countries]-, had ecomnomy not provided the money and turnarund to expand both thet net's infrastructure and had it not fuelled creativity of those who added to it.

Some challenges remain, just a selection:

* How do we enable sharinmg and convesation both for matters of poilitics and global survival?
* How do we compensate creators for their creations if those are digitally shared?
* How do we create an economy based on other models than 'selling copies'?
* How can we have a global conversation that is not 'illegal' in part or all of the countries involved?
* How can we enable 'networks of contributors' so that they can form 'virtual enterprises' and share both profit and risks of entrepreneurship?
* How can we enable companies to work like the sharing net does for the profit of enterprises and customers (and such: society) alike?
* (what other open questions regarding "share (&) economy" do you see?)

These and some more conversations will have to happen at next09.
Maybe we'll meet there?