Inspired by the Aspen Institutes recent paper on moving from a Push economy to a Pull economy , and equally by Yochai Benkler's Coases Penguin, and further still by Howard Rhenigold Read below
IP, communities, whose media is it anyway? And demand economics
When push comes to pull. The new economy & culture of networking technology
I came across a small example of peer production entitled Librivox
LibriVox: free audiobooks. LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain, and then we release the audio files back onto the net (podcast and catalog). Our objective is to make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet. We are a totally volunteer, open source, free content, public domain project.
Its not exactly an exstensive list at the moment, however, it does demonstrate, how a combined collective focus to a common goal, can deliver, what a single individual could not. The gathering and redistribution of information, provides perhaps greater access for those that otherwise might be exposed to certain types of literature.
I wonder outloud, if also we might return in some small way to a more oral tradition. I have begun to load my iPod, with the spoken word, comedy, books, which enable me to immerse myself into thoughts and ideas in places and at times that otherwise I would not be able to do so.
There is a theory that commons based peer production (21 Volunteers make upthe Librivox peer group at the moment) is emerging as the 3rd model of production that relies on decentralised information gathering and exchange and more efficient allocation of human creativity.
The allocation of human creativity, is an interesting point to dwell on. If you think about it. All we have left in developed economies is our unique creative capital. We have automated, and will continue to automate everything, we have unshackled man from the tyranny of the factory culture, but that is a painful process for those not used to utilising their creativity to commercial benefit.
The point that Howard and many others raise is that leveraging network effects such as Reeds Law , and intellectual and creative capital delivers exponential value.
Will Librivox grow? well I don't know, but I do see it as an indicator of things to come.
Say for example, each and every school, had podcasts of lessons, and all books could be supplied as audio, would that not be beneficial to the children learning? Catching up on some text via your iPod/MP3 on the way to school? Or in the car on the way somewhere, or even in bed? Especially as we are witness to the fact that fewer children are reading in ways that we did as children. Is that a concern? Well yes because you worry that their worlds dissolve down to Faceparty and MSN. Denying them the ability to critique the world, and therefore to engage and reshape it for their generation.
So we need to deploy technologies to enable access on multiple levels, we need to deploy technology to release the true value in ideas, and in people. Curiously the World Values Survey does show that as we move towards psychological self-determination We develop the skills and desire to have a direct participation over the things that matter the most to us. These are the ability to confer, discuss and lead.
All the social skills required to deliver on what we see as perhaps a new way of working and organising.
Hi, curious about what this means: "21 Volunteers make upthe Librivox peer group at the moment"? in fact we have 1,200 registered volunteers, with probably 30% (?) of that number active; so, say, 400 active volunteers. That up from a party of one in August 2006.
Of that group there are about 15 really active admin and another 25 really active volunteers; so about 40 core; 400 active; and 1200 registered volunteers.
The growthrate has been exponential:
50 volunteers on oct 15
95 by nov 15
200 by dec 15
525 by jan 15
840 by feb 15
1050 by march 15
1240 as of today (april 11)
seems growth has leveled off; however our book production now has reached critical mass & we are churning out finished products regularly now; so our catalog of 40-odd full-length titles will grow quickly in the coming months.
But I suspect we have reached only a very small group of tech-savvy people ... whether we go to the next level is hard to say. growing much bigger will also cause some organizational & management problems ... but i suppose we'll deal with that if/when we get there.
thanks for the interest.
Hugh.
http://librivox.org
Posted by: hugh | April 12, 2006 at 12:26 AM
Dear Hugh,
Thanks for the information. I was pulling off what you had on the site. It is great to get such accurate clarification. :-)
Can you give me more details about your business model and how you might plan to grow?
we can do this offline if you want.
I have become very interested in the consequences of peer production (read the posts in the post), and the issues around a dynamic business model which employs such a process.
I am talking to a number of companies at the moment, from a research perspective, on how they are engagin the internet, communities, and a new way of collaborating through peer production to the next level of business.
all the best
Alan Moore
[email protected]
Posted by: alan moore | April 12, 2006 at 04:47 PM
hi alan,
no business model: we're non-commercial/public domain (like project gutenberg/wikipedia), don't plan on making any money ever.
but I'd be happy to share some of the (interesting, I think) insights I've gotten over the life of librivox to date. you could send me an email to the above address if you like.
cheers,
hugh.
Posted by: Hugh | April 12, 2006 at 07:20 PM