QotW 4: Gift Economies

A gift economy, also known as “sharing economies” (“Gift Economy”, 2007), is one in which help and information is offered without the exception of any direct, immediate quid-pro-quo (Rheingold (1993)). As mentioned in the reading, "A gift economy is an economic system in which the prevalent mode of exchange is for goods and services to be given without explicit agreement upon a quid pro quo (the Latin term for the concept of "a favor for a favor"). Typically, this occurs in a cultural context where there is an expectation either of reciprocation--in the form of goods or services of comparable value, or of political support, general loyalty, honor to the giver, etc.--or of the gift being passed on in some other manner." ("Gift Economy," 2007). An example of such an economy is, an online community; like the Usenet discussion groups. In such groups, there is an enormous amount of free help and information given out, often to complete strangers whom one may never meet again. (Rheingold (1993) [(“Gift Economy”, 2007)].

I feel, the gift economy is important, not only because it creates openness, but also because it organizes relationships between people in a certain way. For example, open source software development relies on gift giving as a way of getting new ideas into circulation. This also implies that the giver gets power from giving away. This power is used as a way of guaranteeing the quality of the information (Thomas, 2004).

Rheingold suggests that the reasons for contributing to online communities are to receive emotional support or intellectual companionship and having an interest in the domain of the community (Rheingold, 1993). Gift economies are necessary for knowledge production and dissemination. For instance, the online academic articles are intellectual gifts given in return for receiving the intellectual gifts of others. Gift economies serve to bind people together. They create and maintain social groups.

Gift economies differ from Commodity economies, as the latter works against bonding. The rules and expectations, which govern commodity exchange, serve to define and delimit mutual responsibility and future obligation between the parties involved (Baird, 1997). Ideal commodity exchanges occur when the parties involved understand at the outset just what each gives and receives and when the interaction is to be concluded. In a sense, commodity exchanges aim to establish—ideally, mutually beneficial—conclusions of interactions. In contrast, gift exchanges aim to initiate and maintain interactions. In stark contrast to commodity exchanges, gifts cannot have a dollar-measurable value. Such a value would allow a gift recipient to close the interaction; a gift of equal value could be returned leaving neither party obligated to the other. No further interaction would be necessary. Assigned dollar values work against social bonding (Baird, 1997).


Online interaction, an aspect of gift economy, can reduce the costs of contributing to the production of a public good in numerous ways. Any piece of information posted to an online community becomes a public good because the network makes it available to the group as a whole and because one person's “consumption” of the information does not diminish another person's use of it (“Gift Economy”, 2007). Also almost everyone spends most of their time online, participating within the gift economy because users receive much more information than they can ever give away and there is no imposing of equal exchange on the Net (Barbrook, 2005).

There are many examples of gift economies. Any medium, that promotes exchange of information online without any expectations of returns, is a gift economy in its truest form. Blogspace is one example of an emerging and an interesting social space for free, independent, and widely distributed information production. Another example is discussion forums. Personally I am a fan of discussion forums. These forums give people like me, a chance to learn about something or enhance our knowledge on a topic that interests us. Nowadays, one has forums for everything ranging from poker, to dance to education. I am a part of many such forums but my personal favorites are my school discussion forum and The Beatles discussion forum. I am passionate about both these forums and they form an integral part of me.

My school, Mayo College Girls School in India, set up this forum with the help of some alumni students. It informs us about what’s new in school, uploads pictures for us to see and also helps us keep in touch with our teachers and school friends we left behind. It not only has weekly updates but also has information about students and reunions too. I feel it is a nice way to keep in touch and revive old memories.

Another discussion board I am heavily into is The Beatles discussion forum. As mentioned earlier, I am a hardcore Beatles fan. I have grown up listening to their music and own every CD released by them. For those who are not very familiar, I recommend the Anthology Series, which is an 11-hour footage of them, their lives and their music. I am sure once you watch the DVD’s you will become a follower! Coming back to the forum, I feel it is an interesting forum as Beatles fans from all across the globe come together and talk about their experiences and discuss a variety of topics like their music, tours, lives, break up, and even the controversial death of John Lennon. Thus Gift Economies are a blessing in disguise in today’s competitive world.

Reference:

Kollock, P. (1999). 'The Economies of Online Cooperation; Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace" Retrieved February 8, 2007 from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.htm

Rheingold, H. (1993). The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. New York: Addison-Wesley.

Wikipedia (2007). Gift economy. Retrieved February 8, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy

Thomas, C. (2004) "other people benefit. i benefit from their work." Sharing Guitar Tabs Online. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. Retrieved from
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1046/j.1365-2575.2001.00111.x/abs/

Baird, D. (1997) Scientific Instrument Making Epistemology, and the Conflict Between Gift and Commodity Economies. Retrieved from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/SPT/v2n3n4/pdf/baird.pdf

Barbrook, R. (2005). The Hi- Tech Gift Economy. Retrieved from http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue3_12/barbrook/

http://www.aboutthebeatles.com/forum/index.php

http://buffalo.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2210656003

http://buffalo.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2210722433