FOLLOW THE FREE

Releasing incomplete “buggy” products is not…

cost-cutting desperation; it is the shrewdest way to complete a product when your customers are smarter than you are.

The protocommercial state and the triumph of the commons is in ascendance. It is no coincidence that increasing numbers of internet companies take themselves public before they are profitable. Investors are purchasing shares in a firm with protocommercial value. The old guard reads this as a signal of greed, speculation, and hype. But it also signals that many of the components of the gift economy–attention, community, standards, and shared intelligence–have to be in place before cold-cash commercialization can kick in. The gift economy is a rehearsal for the radical dynamics of the network economy.