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Re: Gifts? (was: Re: [ox-en] Richard Barbrook article)



Hiya,

The only thing I don't like is the word "gift" in gift economy.

You're right that the usual meaning of 'gift' in this society is a
permanent transfer of property without payment, so that for the giver
there is only a meritorious feeling of altruism combined with
self-sacrifice..  And that has nothing to do with free software (as
far as I can see).

Except that in both cases, the giver can gain 'respect' from the
recipients. For Left Hegelians, this is the primary purpose of all work -
whether or not it is a gift!

a true gift is one which circulates, whether as itself
(something which is not consumed) or as a replacement after consumption;
and ideally, one which improves during circulation.

Since information can easily be reproduced and isn't usually destroyed in
the process of consumption, this is why gifts are so ubiquitous on the Net.

So it implies no
obligation to return anything to the original giver,

However if you gain 'respect' for your gifts, people will be eager to give
something back in return to win 'respect' from you...

and a society which
is based on gifts is one in which everyone puts something in - but
everyone takes out more than they put in (like Rishab Ghosh's cooking
pot).

But it ain't a cooking pot *market*! - Rishab has the right analysis, but
remains stuck inside the terms of liberal economics.

I believe ESR's analysis of the gift society in the Cathedral & the Bazaar
come from here but rather watered down and distorted -

Also Eric Raymond. Hasn't he noticed that a bazaar is a marketplace where
commodities are made, bought and sold?! You're unlikely to get anything for
free from the bazaari....

one noticeable
point is that old gift-based societies were either simply destroyed
or literally went mad when they met capitalism - the potlatches
of British Columbia, which turned into mass destruction of machine made
goods since they simply couldn't circulate that amount of product as
gifts, or the cargo cults of the pacific.

One of main purposes of potlatches was to prevent the amassing of surpluses
which would disrupt the social bonds of tribal society. Not surprisingly,
nineteenth-century Europeans thought that this concept was 'mad' since the
accumulation of material goods was the primary aim of their societies...

I'm not saying I'm already fully understanding what is happening, but
to me when I'm making a gift, this is a rather personal thing. At
least I must have the vision of a real person the gift is directed to.

Yes - one of the limitations of what Hyde talks about (which he keeps
pointing out) is that all the examples he has are of small-scale societies
where people know one another (he does use science as a counter-example).

The pioneers of the Net were academics - and they embodied their own
working practices into its social mores and technological structure. This
is why the media corporations are having such difficulties in commoditising
the Net - it was never designed for the buying and selling of information.

In this sense a gift is part of an exchange - but this is not what is
happening on the Internet in any useful sense of the word. There is a
big flow of information but the typical tit-for-tat of exchange is the
opposite of what is happening in the Internet / Free Software.

Gifts in a social sense don't need to involve exchange, just circulation

...especially when something is passed on from person to person across the
network. Who then knows where it originated from and who made it?

Later,

Richard






-------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Richard Barbrook
Hypermedia Research Centre
School of Communications and Creative Industries
University of Westminster
Watford Road
Northwick Park
HARROW HA1 3TP

<www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/HRC>

landline: +44 (0)20 7911 5000 x 4590

mobile: 07879-441873

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"Plagiarism is necessary. Progress implies it." - Isidore Ducasse, Comte de
Lautréamont.
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