FM1 New Definitions: Value, Community, Space

First Monday & International Institute of Infonomics

November 4-6, 2001
Heerlen/Maastricht

Impressions

Conference report by Jan Bierhoff
Photographs: Herman Pijpers

The conference kicked off with a keynote address of Esther Dyson of ICANN, highlighting the difficulties to establish an effective involvement of the internet community in a voluntary regulatory body. 'We need to safeguard the public interest', she concluded. Tony Rutkowski via satellite Towards the end of the conference her view was challenged by Tony Rutkowski of VeriSign Inc., who in a closing keynote via satellite stated that market forces will drive change, not standards committees. In between lie two days of conferencing on key issues and explorations of the internet future.
The first concept to be further defined was 'value'. Bruce Perens of HP and author of the open source definition argued that ultimately, through collaborative development of applications, we will end up with a fair IT market, with reasonable profits for entrepreneurs and sufficient reputation for innovators. Kasper Edwards of the Technical University Denmark underlined this view with an analysis of the development of the open source movement. Leo van Hove of the Free University of Brussels defined the nature of electronic money by explaining the full circle from barter in ancient times, over pseudo money (goods), coined and paper money to e-money now and finally electronic barter, the mere exchange of assets. 'Imagine the cashless society', was his advice.
Wilfred Dolfsma of Infonomics pointed at the different value-concept: value in use as opposed to value in exchange, but also social value as an important aspect. Social value being society-specific, driven not only by economic factors but rather by social norms, values, of a community. He compared today's gift economy with traditional values: 'Give and be given'.
Chris Kelty of Rice University bridged with the next conference theme, Community, with a description of the open source movement. He noted striking similarities between the movement and academic life: both groups strongly overlapping physically and geographically, both having a comparable goal (the pursuit of truth and realisation of progress), and shared key interest in merit, reputation as a means of reward. Chris Kelty (pictured left) and Richard Wiggins
Howard Rheingold The second theme 'Community', was introduced by Howard Rheingold, author of 'The Virtual Community', who illustrated his growing interest in the subject with personal experiences. He foresees new ways of living, based on a mix of direct and virtual contacts, the latter providing you direct access to relevant information and ample opportunities for consultation. The key question now is not technical but societal: what kind of living is it that we want to create.
In the following discussion the concept of the 'super empowered individual' was brought to the fore. Rheingold cited the liberal economist Friedman, who coined the term referring to successful anti-landmine email campaigns and the internet-driven operations of Bin Laden. Dolfsma gave context to that view by referring to the options for neutralisation of such, also highly vulnerable individuals. The real empowerment lies with the networks, was a general conclusion.
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