Scope, not scale - Opinion - Michel Bauwens - Al Jazeera English March 23, 2012
i appreciate this article "Scope, not scale" by Michel Bauwens - and can see myself referring people to it in future.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/03/2012319125340857774.html
I'm copying some of the key ideas here, and I to encourage you read the full article which gives historical perspective and examples:
The competitive dynamics of industrial capitalism are well-known, and they are all about scale (snip)
Indeed, economies of scale work well in periods of energy "ascent", when the supply of energy increases, but work less well in periods of energy "descent". In these circumstances, economies of scope are needed. These types of economies are exactly what peer production (which encompasses open knowledge, free culture, free software, open and shared designs, open hardware and distributed manufacturing) is all about.
Our current system is based on the belief of infinite growth and the endless availability of resources, despite the fact that we live on a finite planet. Let's call this "pseudo-abundance". The system also holds that innovations should be privatised and only available by permission or for a hefty price, making sharing of knowledge and culture a crime, Let's call this "enforced artificial scarcity".
Peer production methodologies are based on the exact opposite tenets. Peer production communities believe that knowledge is a commons, for all to share. Therefore, no innovation can be withheld from the human population as a whole. In fact, withholding a life-saving or world-saving innovation is seen as distinctly unethical. Peer production designs for distribution, inclusion and small-scale fabrication. Planned obsolescence - which is a feature and not a bug, of the current system - is totally alien to peer production logics. In other words, sustainability is a feature of open design communities, not a bug.
So what are the economies of scope of this new age? They come in two flavours: the mutualising of knowledge and the mutualising of tangible resources.
The first principle is easy to understand. When an individual doesn't know something, it's more likely that a community - whether local or virtual - does know. Hence, the mutualising of knowledge and "crowd-accelerated innovation" is now a well-known feature of the collaborative economy. But the advantage of scope is created when that knowledge is shared, and can be used by others. With this social innovation, the cost of production that depends on knowledge can be dramatically reduced. (snip)
"What will the new system look like if economies of scope become the norm, replacing economies of scale as the primary driver of the economy and social system?" |
The second principle, of sharing physical resources, is exemplified by the trend towards collaborative consumption. The general idea is the same. I may lack a certain tool, skill or service, but it is likely that someone else in a community has it, and that other person could share, rent or barter it. There's no need to all possess the same tool if we can access it when we need it. Hence the proliferation of "peer-to-peer marketplaces".
(snip)
Do we have a potential peer-to-peer version of this that can operate globally? The answer will be for a future contribution.
Full article at http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/03/2012319125340857774.html
Michel Bauwens is a theorist, writer and a founder of the P2P (Peer-to-Peer) Foundation.
Follow him on Twitter: @MBauwens