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begging

     commerce, cash and casualties

This page considers the shape of commerce in digital environments.

It covers -

• introduction
• global capital
• attitudes
• amazonian exceptionalism
• busking and the performance economy
• and panhandling

     global capital

Robert Gilpin's The Challenge of Global Capitalism: The World Economy in the 21st Century (Princeton: Princeton Uni Press 2000) and Saskia Sassen's Globalization & Its Discontents: Essays On The New Mobility of People & Money (New York: New Press 1999) map the terrain. 

Exploring E-Commerce, Global E-Business & E-Societies (Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall 2000) by Craig Fellenstein & Ron Wood is a drier academic study. We recommend instead Wendy Currie's The Global Information Society: A New Paradigm for the 21st Century Corporation (New York: Wiley 2000).

The American Internet Advantage: Global Themes & Implications of the Modern World (Lanham: University Press of America 2000) is a crisp examination by Michael Hart of ongoing US dominance of the web.

     attitudes

The Friction-Free Economy (New York: HarperCollins 1997) by T.G. Lewis and Telecosm: How Infinite Bandwidth Will Revolutionise Our World (New York: Free Press 2000) by George Gilder offer one view of digital commerce. Paulina Borsook's Cyberselfish: A Critical Romp Through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High Tech (New York: PublicAffairs 1999) notes that

the cyberlibertarians who are so terrified of big government seem to have no problems with big business. The fundamental structure of the Net will prevent corporate dominance, Wired founder Lou Rossetto thus argued that "this revolution really is out of control ... and the larger the company at the top, the more clueless they are."

Richard Barbrook similarly notes that "in the digital utopia, everybody will be both hip and rich", questioning the 'Californian Ideology' as a bizarre fusion of the cultural bohemianism of San Francisco with the hi-tech industries of Silicon Valley" something that "promiscuously combines the freewheeling spirit of the hippies and the entrepreneurial zeal of the yuppies." We've explored some of the issues here.

A corrective to some of the 'new economy' delirium is provided by Paul Strassman and Robert Gordon. For a more general examination consult other pages of this guide or Michael Noll's Highway of Dreams: A Critical View Along the Information Superhighway (Mahwah: Erlbaum 1997).

     introduction

Robert

For the moment there are more detailed pointers in the separate Economy guide.

     amazonian exceptionalism

[under development]

     busking and the performance economy

Forecasts of the imminent 'death of copyright' (often with the same fervour as predictions of the 'death of capitalism') have sometimes been accompanied by assertions that although copyright lawyers and intermediaries such as record companies will disappear, creators will flourish in a new 'performance economy'.

Some ideologues dismiss problems of recognition and rewards by asserting that notions of originality are as outmoded and pernicious as books: in the digital millennium everyone can and indeed become a creator. Others, with a marginally better grip on reality, assert that creators will be rewarded with esteem and remuneration through 'busking', making a living on the lecture circuit, concert appearances, poetry readings, sale of t-shirts or product endorsements rather than from licensing intellectual property.

Such assertions are a form of faith-based economics. Few creators appear likely to make substantial income through appearances and endorsements. Just as importantly, many probably do not want emulate Dickens and Thackeray on the lecture circuit and do not have the requisite presentation skills.

A more detailed discussion of busking is featured elsewhere on this site.

     and panhandling

A discussion of 'cyber-begging' or 'online panhandling' is featured elsewhere on this site.

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