What is a gift economy? According to Wikipedia, a gift economy is an economic system in which goods and services are given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future quid pro quo (“Latin for something for something”). In other words, a gift economy is a transaction or even more so an agreement that involves an unstated obligation to repay the gift in the future. The article by Peter Kollock defines a gift as “(1) the obligatory transfer, (2) of inalienable objects or services, (3) between related and mutually obligated transactors.” Kollock also differentiates between gifts and commodities. He uses the example that gifts are unique; it is tied in an indisputably to the giver. As for a commodity, it is the complete opposite. Other distinctions include that gifts are exchanged between individuals who are part of an ongoing interdependent relationships; commodities are primarily based on self-interest. Also gift economies are driven by social relations while commodity economies are driven by price.
One gift economy that we should all be aware of and acknowledge is the free software community which supports the free software movement. Free software helped impact the Internet, the World Wide Web, and dot-com companies. Wikipedia also goes on to explain that the basic purpose of the free software movement is to defend the right that “individuals, groups, and companies should be allowed to use free software because they believe that the freedom to help yourself and to collaborate with others should be fundamental human rights, and it includes those who see free software as a way to make money.” More importantly to college students, Markus Giesler has developed music downloading as a system of social solidarity based on gift transactions (Wikipedia).
Programmers of free software communities allow their source code available; allowing anyone to copy and modify or improve the code. Not only are the programmers recognized, the community benefits as well. However, don’t confuse the free software community with Software Corporation. Jem Matzen describes a software corporation as an exchange economy which is like an isolated community where ideas are passed around and improved upon internally before being developed and sold as a licensed software product. In a gift economy of the Free and Open-Source Software world, the community is larger, more open and non-exclusive, thus being a larger reserve of intelligence and experience to formulate and cultivate ideas and implementations. Matzen also goes on to say how “gift economy approach is more conducive to the formulation and development of new ideas and technologies, and in that respect it is beneficial to both the consumer and the developer.”
One of the most major examples of free software available is Linux. Linux has been used as an operating system for a wide variety of computer hardware, including desktop computers, supercomputers, video game systems and embedded devices such as mobile phones and routers. Many of us may not have even known we were part of a gift economy or that it even existed. It’s hard to believe that a gift economy would still survive in our materialistic world. A gift economy doesn’t just have to even technology either. Our whole lives we were a part of an economy that gave us so much, our family. It’s hard to imagine that we aren’t expected to give something in return.
Kollock, P. (1999). The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in
Cyberspace.
Matzen, J. (2004). The Gift Economy and Free Software. Web site:
http://www.linux.com/articles/36554
Wikipedia. Gift Economy. Retrieved September 21, 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wik/Goft_economy
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1 comment:
I like your blog, and title!
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