[GSDI Legal Econ] New Economy of Access

[Kate Lance]

fyi - interview with Jeremy Rifkin. His new book, The Age of Access, has just recently been published.
 
New Economy of Access
http://www.govtech.net/magazine/story.print.php?id=4726
"... we are making a great historic shift, from property exchange in markets, to access relationships and networks."
 
"Now we move primary communication and commerce to cyberspace. That has to change things fundamentally in terms of the time orientation, and it does. The first thing it does is move us from markets to networks. In a market, you have a seller and a buyer who come together in a moment in time. They exchange goods and services. The seller makes money on the margins of the transaction and on the volume of sales. That's market capitalism. In networks, there are no longer any sellers and buyers. There are only suppliers and users, or servers and clients. In networks, property still exists, but it always stays in the hands of producers. It is not exchanged in the traditional sense. Instead, clients access the property, be it physical or intellectual, in time segments -- memberships, subscriptions, retainers, leases and licensing agreements. In markets, you commodify the goods and the services. In networks, you commodify human time. That is the scarce resource and the actual commodity that
 is bought and sold."
 
"...the key here is understanding the difference between a network and a market. In markets, you make money on the margins of the transactions and the volume of the units you sell. In a network, you make money the exact opposite way ­ by pooling your risk with partners and by minimizing your production." 
 
Source: Government Technology Magazine (June 6, 2005)


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