Prosperity of The Digital Commons

A different perspective on Information & Technology







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Information & Technology

 

The offer: a new approach that solves bottlenecks in Information & Technology, provides new opportunities, and clears the way for more innovation


  1. Seeing opportunities
  2. Tackling bottlenecks
  3. Strategic investing

Seeing opportunities

Change begins with perception

 

The next big innovation is not a new technology: it’s a new way of seeing

— Beau Lotto

Opportunities

Exploiting the characteristics of digital

  • Free : no (intrinsic) value
  • Instant : instant distribution → low transaction costs
  • Perfect : perfect reproduction → low marginal costs

Gates open secret

 

Microsoft might spend a lot of money to develop the first unit of a new program, but every unit after that is virtually free to produce.

Unlike the goods that powered our economy in the past, software is an intangible asset.

— Bill Gates

Digital abundance

 

Data, software, knowledge is a public good,

  • Abundant → has no scarcity
  • Deflationary → more value at lower costs
  • Exponential

But we continue to invest in commercial goods

Tackling bottlenecks

Bottlenecks

Vendor lock-ins aimed at profit maximization

  • Financial
    • No market forces → recurring subscription costs
  • Legal
    • Restrictive licenses with unilateral adjustments→ data collection and software rental
  • Technical
    • Closed data format
    • Upgrade pressure and coercion

Growth opportunities

The FLO alternative

  • Free: Free from financial and legal obligations
    • No restrictions on growth
  • Local: Local processing
    • Independence
  • Open: Accessibility

Reproducibility crisis

Irreproducible research

Why Most Published Research Findings Are False

— John Ioannidis

Reproducibility

Reproducibility answers the question:

“How did you / I do that?”

Reproducible knowledge → The consistent documentation of a process in a programming language

Benefits:

  1. Insight by coding of the process
  2. Collaboration through sharing and reproducing
  3. Growth in functionality, accessibility, stability, knowledge, …

The different approach to Information & Technology

 

  1. Digital

    • Free / Instant / Perfect

  2. Public technologies

    • Free / Local / Open

  3. Reproducibility

    • Insight / Collaboration / Growth

The Digital Commons

The prosperity of the digital commons




The digital version of the Commons brings benefits to many,
if we choose to do so

Strategic investing

Strategic investing

The Digital Commons

Investing in the prosperity of the digital common good for

  • Professionals
  • Organisations and sectors
  • Society

The alternative for the influence of commerce and big tech

Investing - professionals

 

Bicycle for the mind

— Steve Jobs

  • Mindware as an intellectual tool
  • Building knowledge in software
  • Bottom-up contributions to the digital commons

Investing - organizations and sectors

 

  • Cost reduction
  • Intangibles (knowledge, software) as assets
  • Being able to respond more independently to change

Investing - society

  • Second machine age → mindware
    • Perception of truth in the virtuality
    • The influence of digital infrastructure
  • Trickle-down technological change →

Overview

 

Conditions for growth

Why great leaders and scientists open their minds to uncertainty?

+ Mindset  The other perspective
+ Material  Data, information and knowledge
+ Method  Reproducible science
+ Means  Mindware
+ Money  Low investment → digital abundance
+ Momentum “First slowly, then suddenly”
Milieu  Digital ecosysteem
People  Culture of sharing, and collaborating
Mandate  Leadership?

Thank you!