Sharing Nicely: On Shareable Goods

¶ … Sharing Nicely: On Shareable Goods and the Emergence of Sharing as a Modality of Economic Production," Yochai Benkler addresses current and changing trends in the general concept of the economy. He suggests that the current system utilized by SETI@home, a distributed computing platform, and the system of carpooling do not subscribe to traditional systems that are based on price and offer substitutable functionality. Instead, they function on the basis of a sharing ethic and social relations.

Towards explaining this viewpoint, the first chapter then provides two case studies to more fully explore the nature of carpooling and distributed computing. Four characteristics are expounded by the case studies: first, large-scale sharing practices among weakly related individuals or strangers are expounded. The second characteristic is the sharing of private economic goods. The third is the existence of market models that clear the excess capacity of shared private goods, and the fourth concerns the purpose of use for the goods involved.

Chapter II concerns the concepts of lumpiness, granularity, and shareable goods. Lumpiness concerns excess. A certain capacity is for example available for computers, while specific users do not necessarily use all the capacity available. Small-, mid- and large-grained lumpiness further expounds this concept, in that the first is the least wasteful in terms of capacity and the last the most wasteful. Chapter III concerns the way in which to handle the excess capacity problem.

In car pooling for example, the lumpiness of empty car seats is handled by sharing these with others in need of transportation. The motivation is to optimize the use of capacity and to eliminate excess. In this regard, the author explicates transaction costs and frameworks, as well as the reward systems associated with these. The point of this chapter is to explicate that there are different possibilities where transactions are concerned.

The main premise of the article occurs in Chapter IV, where the author addresses the issue of sharing as a modality of production. He claims that, in addition to being both common and underappreciated, the modality of sharing is also a modality of production. This modality is sensitive to technology, as well as decentralized, with many individuals taking part in this mode of production. Sharing therefore provides a platform by means of which individuals can optimize not only their own capacity use, but also that of others.

An individual's efficacy is limited by physical and capital constraints. This problem is eliminated by allowing several individuals to share in the mode of production. This makes it an attractive modality of production, although somewhat underappreciated. In Chapter V, the author considers the policy implications of the sharing modality of production. He applies this to the concepts of wireless communications regulation; information, knowledge and cultural production policy; and network design to facilitate shareable goods networking.

As an example, the author notes that radio and computer technology has changed to such an extent that they.