Exploring the Knowledge Economy

The final session for today is opened by economist John Quiggin from the University of Queensland. He notes the increasing importance of the Internet as a focus of innovation, since about 1980 (previously, it was transport which drove innovation). Most of the innovations it brought about, however, were pioneered outside the market sector - they were done in the background of the main economy (think for example of blogs and wikis).

Innovations on networks are naturally non-rival, and excludability (restrictions to people's access) is problematic as exclusion undermines the network itself (as AOL has found - ultimately it was unable to restrict its users from accessing the wider network, and vice versa). Similar exclusions in online newspapers (such as the New York Times Website) are also ultimately counterproductive.

In the case of centralised networks, such as the traditional telephone network, the network as a whole is a public good, and innovations in this network are automatically available to all; costs can be recovered through pricing systems. On the other hand, in end-oriented networks, it is possible to distribute innovations from widely separated sources (e.g. open source software, newsgroups, Weblogs, wikis), but this is not an automatic process: cost recovery is generally unworkable, and patent enforcement has usually done more harm than good in such contexts. (As in the case of SCO's case against Unix, or the 'church' of scientology's attempts to use their copyright to restrict criticism of its evil ways.)

There is a question of social capital here, then. This is analogous to human and natural capital, and investment in social capital cannot be clearly characterised; it is a type of distributed network, where social capital resides in connections, not in individuals; and it is more overt and measurable in an Internet context. We might invest in social capital as a form of altruism, gift exchange, self-expression, etc., and these motives are usually compatible with one another and mutually reinforcing; however, the market rationality is antagonistic to such non-egoistic motives, and the bureaucratic rationality is equally problematic.

The implications of this, from a policy point of view, therefore are that commons ideas appear opposed to intellectual property; that creativity appears opposed to rationality; that the state should take a supporting rather than a leading role; and that the markets may take a rather peripheral role in this context.

John now hands over to Dave Rooney from the School of Business at UQ Ipswich, presenting the experience of Australian Creative Resources Online (ACRO). ACRO is a database of multimedia objects which are available over the Internet; these are mainly music or video. ACRO is a kind of 'digital junkyard' for creative content which was created for, but hasn't been used in official releases; it makes this content available as input for new creative projects.

Clearly this idea also has to engage with copyright issues in the creative industries; it also aims to lower the cost barriers to grassroots production. In the process it also creates a legally safe environment, which may especially also benefit educational uses (e.g. in schools). The problem with copyright as it exists at the moment is that it protects the rights of financiers rather than creative producers, which means that creative commons-style approaches are highly necessary.

Culture can be seen as knowledge, and the knowledge economy can be seen as a creative, attention, or communication economy, and will increasingly be media (or 3-knowledge) centric; the media are key providers of what David calls testimonial knowledge. The production and diffusion of knowledge (including culture) is fundamental to the future of knowledge-based economies or societies. In turn, grassroots production is the wellspring for creative and cultural knowledge production, but grassroots producers are frequently under-resourced (and under-capitalised) - production costs tend to be high. ACRO and the CC step in here, by sharing production costs and resources through the sharing of open content.

Educational production is an important part of this grassroots level, and a legally safe environment for educational production is highly crucial. Freedom to be creative in learning environments (that is, free from prosecution by global media corporations) is essential; students need access to quality material which is nonetheless available for them to use in their own projects. ACRO, CC, and other projects provide an excellent solution here.

Finally, we move on to Jean Burgess and Mark Fallu from QUT, presenting the Youth Internet Radio Network project (YIRN). This project aims to develop a network of young content producers, thereby democratising use of technology. It is built around the idea of intercreativity (rather than mere interactivity) as proposed by Tim Berners-Lee (and discussed by Graham Meikle in Future Active). YIRN has begun some content creation workshops which build the skills for digital storytelling in their participants. (And Jean shows us some of the short pieces that people have already produced.)

Mark notes that there have been several disruptive technologies in the past, which put to an end some of the existing paradigms. But perhaps we are now entering an age where disruption is the permanent state of existence, where disruptive technologies constantly bend and change the rules of media, economy, and society. (One example he notes in this context is the filesharing software Bittorrent - a 'weapon of mass distribution'. For example, fans of the documentary were instrumental in making large portions of the Outfoxed available through Bittorrent and other systems, under CC licences and allowing for their remixing and reimagining.)

YIRN builds on this phenomenon and provides content for it. The system largely uses open source software components, for content management, content syndication, and reverse content attribution (using a TrackBack-style system); it is not unlike Mixter in this regard. There are also discussion fora attached to pieces of YIRN content, and the system is also policed in part by the community (presumably in a way similar to Slashdot-style content ratings systems). YIRN is still in the process of exploring how to interweave its own content with commercially-produced content (e.g. APRA-licenced songs). This aim adds another layer of complexity to the content management system, but it is certainly not impossible to achieve.

Tim Gaze and Band
Tonight we're on to the conference dinner on the Kookaburra Queen river boat, complete with music from ACRO's own Tim Gaze...