Internet-based 'social sharing' as a new form of global production: The case of SETI@home

Benkler ('Sharing Nicely', Yale Law Journal, 2004, Vol. 114, pp. 273-358) has argued that 'social sharing' via Internet-based distributed computing is a new, so far under-appreciated modality of economic production. This paper presents results from an empirical study of SETI@home (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), which is the classic example of such a computing project. The aim is to explain SETI@home participation and its intensity in a cross-country setting. The data are for a sample of 172 developed and developing countries for the years 2002-2004. The results indicate that SETI@home participation and its intensity can be explained largely by the degree of ICT access (proxied by the International Telecommunication Union's 'Digital Access Index'), as well as GDP per capita and dummy variables for major country groups. Some other variables, such as the Human Development Index, perform less well. Although SETI@home is a global phenomenon, it is never-the-less mostly concentrated in rich countries. However, there are indications of a slowly narrowing global SETI@home digital divide

ICT Intensity and New Zealand's Productivity Malaise: Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full?

This paper contributes to the conflicting international evidence on the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on labour productivity (LP) growth. We examine the link between ICT intensity and New Zealand's LP growth in 29 industries over the period 1988-2003, and over relevant sub-periods. After deriving an ICT intensity index to classify industries into 'more ICT intensive' and 'less ICT intensive', we compare LP growth rates for these two industry categories. We also employ dummy variable regression models to more formally test the relationships between ICT intensity and LP growth. The results prove sensitive to the time period specified. When breaks in the data series are taken into account, there is support for the view that LP growth of more ICT intensive industries has improved over time relative to that of other industries, even though overall LP growth was weak. Lack of LP growth per se, therefore, is not necessarily evidence against the beneficial productivity impacts of ICT

The (un)happiness of knowledge and the knowledge of (un)happiness: Happiness research and policies for knowledge-based economies

Paper presented to the International Conference Policies for Happiness, June 14-17, 2007, Certosa di Pontignano, University of Siena, Italy.This paper explores the current state and interfaces of two broad policy discourses, i.e. that of policies for knowledge-based economies (KBEs) and policy implications of happiness research, which so far have exhibited little explicit cross-referencing. I first review the state of 'mainstream' knowledge policy associated with the OECD, the related but somewhat separate literature on information society indicators, and some 'non-mainstream' knowledge policy analysis. This is followed by a brief overview of some of the major policy implications and controversies in happiness research. Next, I discuss major interfaces of the two policy discourses. They mostly concern the nexus of education, work and innovation. I also illustrate the diversity of beliefs and values about some core elements of KBEs in a group of what are usually regarded as similar countries, and advocate the use of subjective variables to capture these differences. The main argument put forward in this paper is that policies for KBEs should be informed by insights from happiness research

ICT Research, the New Economy, and the Evolving Discipline of Economics: Back to the Future?

Economics-related ICT research has moved from the fringes of the discipline to penetrate all of its branches. It is, therefore, not a separate economics sub-discipline. It is also unlikely to become part of an 'ICT or Internet Research' proto-discipline. Instead, it should be seen as only one part of a bigger agenda toward a proper 'information and knowledge economics' and possibly a future proto-discipline of a 'unified theory of information and knowledge' or a meta-discipline of information sciences. This is the post-print version of a short article for the Special Issue: ICT Research and Disciplinary Boundaries: Is “Internet Research” a Virtual Field, a Proto-Discipline, or Something Else?”(Guest Editor: Nancy K. Baym), Information Society, Volume 21, No. 4, 2005, pp. 317-320. See: http://www.indiana.edu/~tisj

The wealth of networks: How social production transforms markets and freedom

No abstract availabl

EXPLORING THE DETERMINANTS OF GLOBAL ‘SOCIAL PRODUCTION’ OF INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE: INSIGHTS FROM SETI@HOME

Commons-based peer production is an activity that is emerging as a distinct mode of resource allocation and production of information, knowledge and culture (‘social production’ for short), potentially heralding a new stage in the development of information/knowledge-based economies. This paper presents a cross-country analysis of factors determining the information and knowledge output of the paradigmatic social production project, i.e. SETI@home. The main hypothesis explored is that the level of average subjective well-being in a country is a motivational proxy variable that can help explain the cross-country variation in SETI@home output levels. The hypothesis that trust might be of lesser importance is also explored. I find support for both hypotheses, but only for developed and advanced countries, not poor countries.