Talk:Chapter 1 part 2

"Were these emergent commons to be parcelled up and fenced off then mass, participatory, barefoot solutions could become all but impossible."

Should this be ... would become all but impossible?

drew

Lighten up
The author seems to need a bad guy and has selected Microsoft. You actually have an interesting story to tell, but you shouldn't garbage it up in this way. Yes, Microsoft makes beaches and quite nice beaches they are as well. That's why Microsoft makes money. If they were not providing a service that people were willing to pay for they would be out of business rather quickly. Microsoft is not telling you where to lay your blankets; you're free to arrange the content however you wish. you are after all using some sort of an Internet browser in addition to your wiki. Even wikis need a certain amount of commercial infrastructure or no one would be able to communicate. do you object to Internet service providers Charging a fee? Where do you think all that fiber optic cable is going to come from?

You really don't need a bad guy to tell the story you have to tell which is an interesting one: How large groups of people can collaborate effectively.

Respectfully, William goetsch, USA

Expanding on the Metaphor
As a surfer, the beach is a big part of my life, and I feel like surfing is the ultimate expression of the Beach Ethic. Regular people go to the beach when the weather is nice. Surfers 'round here go during storms. In the winter.

Surfing is beaching, hardcore-style.

In that light, surfing has placed me directly in the friction zone where the order of municipal law and private ownership rubs up against the essential liberty of the ocean. Law in the US says that below the low tide line is public property - a right-of-way to be specific. The beach itself can be "owned."

When surfable waves break outside of private property, surfers find a way to get to them. Sometimes it's easy and legal. Sometimes the cops are waiting when you get out.

In the past, surfing also placed me in the friction zone where the order of employment rubs up against the essential liberty of being alive. (Something, something, and the pursuit of something...I can't recall.)

Surfable waves break when waves surfable break. Where I live, it's not that often, so you go when the surf's up. My previous bosses never appreciated that fact. (My new boss, myself, doesn't seem to mind.)

So I feel like I 'get it.' Commerce, IMO, needs a great big injection of "the beach" to turn those undermotivated employees (inmates, they may call themselves) into creativity machines.

So what's the metaphor for implementation? What beach works the best?

I've been to a lot of beaches, and one stands out in the intelligence of its approach to access and development. Isle of Palms, South Carolina, USA has a miles-long beach studded end-to-end with private homes, yet it's the least crowded, most accessible beach I've ever been to.

Their ingenious approach has two main points that tell me something about implementing the Beach Ethic in a commercial space.

First, the law states that the beach up to the first dune is public property. So, metaphorically, commerce would need to give up control of the creative space (a la YouTube).

Second, instead of concentrating the public beach (mass creativity area) far from the private homes (commerce) with a giant parking lot and an overcrowded beach where nobody has any elbow room, the entire miles-long beach road is dotted with little parking lots that hold 6 - 8 cars. From there, the public walk down thin access paths to the beach. Everybody stays spread out and everybody has room.

Metaphorically, this allows commerce to retain its privileged place in the prime creative areas, but, by relinquishing control of the actual creative space, commerce allows exponentially greater amounts of creativity to take place. And commerce becomes surrounded by free, mass creativity, not separated from it.

In absolutely concrete terms, Viacom, instead of fighting against YouTube, should engage with YouTube contributors to find their next great creative mind. Just as the record companies alienated themselves from their market by fighting against downloaders, Viacom are alienating themselves not just from their market, but from their future self.

Frymaster Speck, Providence & Beyond