In this new era, as Saffo puts it, “…the central economic actor is someone who both produces and consumes in the same act.” Just as the mass media were essential to the rise of the consumer economy, today’s emergent personal media platforms are making the creator society possible. The quintessential example of creation is a Google search. Two decades ago, online search cost money in the form of a monthly subscription, but now, thanks to Google, it is free to the user. Or, rather, it seems free but in fact the searcher is paying with each search—and the payment is the search string they enter. The string of text that goes into the search box seems valueless to the creator, but when aggregated with all the other search strings flowing in, it is valuable enough to make Google worth billions. A simple Google search thus typifies what drives the creator economy—creative value flowing in both directions at the same instant. (via
Paul Saffo Describes the “Creator Economy”)
The Smarter Planet tumblelog is an outgrowth of IBM’s strategic initiative to help a world of smart systems emerge.
See this primer on Smarter Planet
