The Creator Economy
I am listening to Paul Saffo talk on the KQED program Forum. He is talking about what we might see coming up in the next few years. He discusses what he calls the ‘Creator Economy’ based around the simultaneous creation and consumption of value. He thinks of this as the evolution of what was once the producer economy, where scarcity was the controlling factor, and then became the consumer economy, where sales and marketing was the dominant idea. I have been wondering about this idea recently and see it as a natural extension of Robert Wright’s Non-Zero thesis. As our communication networks grow so does our ability to create new kinds of value.
The early examples are Google, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, Threadless. These all rely on their ability to generate participation and through that create individual and group value. I wonder what it takes for more of our physical products and services to follow this same path?
Saffo talks about everything from new religions, the various dialects of capitalism, the future of robots and the winners and losers from global warming. It is worth checking out. Here is the link.
31/12/2008 at 3:41 pm Permalink
Just by coincidence, in the same frame of reading that I found your post, I had found this post—http://www.archdaily.com/10775/quinta-monroy-elemental/
Your formulation, or restatement of Saffo’s concept—to generate participation and through that create individual and group value—seems to be at the core of these architects’ work in Chile, generating a fascinating concept to a well-known problem.
“We think that social housing should be seen as an investment and not as an expense. So we had to make that the initial subsidy can add value over time. All of us, when buying a house expect it to increase its value. But social housing, in an unacceptable proportion, is more similar to buy a car than to buy a house; every day, its value decreases.”
The concept seems so aligned, and so delightful in its vision. A small step, but
a big example?
01/01/2009 at 2:55 am Permalink
A natural progression of a Creator Economy would be a Designer Economy. As the chaos of creation settles down people will want to create better. Creating better is designing.
04/01/2009 at 10:02 am Permalink
“Designer / Economy” It is important to consider that this is not a single goal but a complex relationship between designing a product or building and the business of creating a client or customer. Somehow art schools are focused solely on creativity with little thought about how it will be used in the marketplace. Please discuss!
24/01/2009 at 2:15 am Permalink
Linda, I think you are right. Art schools focus on creativity and not on “implementing” and driving a product to the market, making it “sellable”. While on the other hand, the school system (specially in some European Countries, not sure in the States it’s the same) focus on “rational knowledge acquisition” where creativity and creative thinking do not play any role. In my opinion, innovation is about: having an idea THAT SOLVES an unresolved PROBLEM or generates a new need (eg. mobiles), seekng collaboration to build upon your idea (sharing), having the right communication skills to “sell” your idea to whoever needs to buy it in order for a team to “implement” it. That’s why it is complex. Because innovation is not a “one man show”, it’s a collaborative exercise where many skills are needed, not just creativity.
11/02/2009 at 7:46 am Permalink
Agree, the companies that focus on innovation will emerge in the best position.