According to McGee and Skageby the most common form of internet giving is expertise. This makes plenty of sense because knowledge or a different perspective is generally pretty easy to provide to others. Also, sharing knowledge was one of the first uses for the Internet. It was used to allow scientists to collaborate across great distances in the hopes of enhancing collective knowledge.
An economy that I participate in is RocWiki. RocWiki is an online guide to some of the highlights of Rochester culture. One of my favorite aspects of RocWiki is the restaurant reviews. As a self-professed foodie I love seeing what’s out there for me to enjoy in the culinary world. However, I’m not one to just go into a restaurant and hope the food was worth the 20 dollars I would spend. I would much rather look online and see what the patrons of these unknown restaurants have to say about it and then base my decision on their opinions.
As outlined in the reading a gift economy is one where information is supplied for reasons other than direct monetary gain. A gift economy is similar to the concept presented in the movie Pay it Forward. Individuals offered their help and expertise to another member of their community without asking for reimbursement and also not knowing whether or not the good deed will benefit them in the long run.
I considered RocWiki to be part of a gift economy because as outlined in the article gift transactions have three characteristics. First gift transactions do not require the gift to be repaid. RocWiki doesn’t allow users to utilize their services and information for the low price of $9.99 per month; it offers the services completely free. Each contributor gives freely of their knowledge to everyone else. The looming comment box at the bottom of each page let’s you know that if it is pertinent to your experiences it would be beneficial to the whole to share them.
The second characteristic that identifies the site as a gift economy is according to Kollock, “benefits come from improving the ‘technology of relations’”. RocWiki offers its services in the hopes that by pointing its members and users in the right direction it will enrich their lives and in the long run enrich Rochester as a community. It also helps improve relations by offering links to organizations in Rochester that are dedicated to helping bring people together such as a Young Professionals organizations that looks to help this group improve their social network.
According to Kylie Veale, the third characteristic of a gift economy is “intangible rewards leading to tangible rewards. Although someone may never walk up to a contributor to RocWiki and say, “Wow I’m so glad you took the time to recommend that restaurant to me!” There is still a tangible reward to be found here. The website itself is a tangible reward. It is the original creation of someone out there, and it is a piece of every single person who took the time to give of themselves to the site.
*As a side note, would you guys mind filling out a brief survey for my communication 205 class?*
References
Kollock, P. “The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace”. London: Routledge. (15 September 2008). https://ublearns.buffalo.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_61661_1%26url%3d.
McGee, Kevin and Jorgen Skageby. “Gifting technologies” First Monday, July 2005. (15 September 2008).
Veale, Kylie J. “Internet gift economies: Voluntary payment schemes as tangible reciprocity”. First Monday, 2002. (15 September 2008).
1 comment:
I know we have something similar to RocWiki here in Buffalo, I think its MyBuffalo.com or something. I should become a member and see what it's like.
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