Carr–Benkler wager: Difference between revisions

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The [[Scientific wager|wager]] was proposed by Benkler in July 2006 in a comment to a blog post where Carr criticized Benkler's views about volunteer peer-production. Benkler believed that by 2011 the major sites would have content provided by volunteers in what Benkler calls [[commons-based peer production]], as in [[Wikipedia]], [[reddit]], [[Flickr]] and [[YouTube]]. Carr argued that the trend would favor content provided by paid workers, as in most traditional news outlets.<ref>{{cite news |first= Charles |last= Arthur |title=What is the Carr-Benkler wager? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2006/aug/03/guardianweeklytechnologysection |work=[[The Guardian]] |date= 2006-08-03 |access-date=2008-08-27 |___location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Justin |last=Fox |title=Getting Rich off Those Who Work for Free. |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1590440-1,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070220114321/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C1590440-1%2C00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 20, 2007 |publisher=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=February 15, 2007 |access-date=2007-03-03 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Nicholas |last=Carr |author-link=Nicholas G. Carr |title=Calacanis's wallet and the Web 2.0 dream. |date=19 July 2006 |url=http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/07/jason_calacanis.php |access-date=2007-10-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | first=Yochai |last=Benkler |author-link=Yochai Benkler |title=Benkler on Calacanis's wallet. |date=28 July 2006 |url=http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/07/benkler_on_cala.php |access-date=2007-11-05}}</ref>

In May 2012 Carr resurrected the discussion, arguing that he had clearly won the wager, pointing out that the most popular blogs and online videos at that time were corporate productions.<ref>{{cite web |first= Nicholas|last= Carr |title=Pay Up, Yochai |date= May 2012 |url=http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2012/05/pay_up_yochai_b_3.php |access-date=2012-05-06}}</ref> Benkler replied with a rebuttal shortly after,<ref>{{cite web |first= Benkler |last= Yochai |title=Carr-Benkler Wager Revisited |url=http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/ybenkler/2012/05/07/on-the-carr-benkler-wager/ |access-date=2012-05-06}}</ref> arguing that the only way Carr could be seen to have won is if social software was considered as commercial content. [[Gigaom]] writer Matthew Ingram stated that "Benkler has clearly won. While there are large corporate entities with profit-oriented motives involved in the web, a group that includes Facebook and Twitter, the bulk of the value that is produced in those networks and services comes from the free behavior of crowds of users."<ref>{{Cite news |url = https://gigaom.com/2012/05/09/the-carr-benkler-wager-and-the-peer-powered-economy/ |archive-url = https://archive.today/20141130075223/https://gigaom.com/2012/05/09/the-carr-benkler-wager-and-the-peer-powered-economy/ |url-status = dead |archive-date = November 30, 2014 |title=The Carr-Benkler wager and the peer-powered economy |last = Ingram |first=Matthew |date = May 9, 2012 |work = Gigaom |access-date = November 29, 2014}}</ref>

== Analysis ==

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Second, even though the majority of the most influential websites seem to be run by commercial companies, a considerable part of their technological infrastructure, as well as nearly all software used by Fortune 500 companies and governments is based on CBPP: from Apache, the most popular web server, to [[Linux]], on which the top-500 supercomputers run, to WordPress, the most popular content management system, to OpenSSL, the most popular encryption protocol to secure transactions.<ref>Eghbal, N. (2019) ‘Roads and Bridges: The Unseen Labor Behind Our Digital Infrastructure’, Ford Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.fordfoundation.org/media/2976/roads-and-bridges-the-unseen-labor-behind-our-digital-infrastructure.pdf. </ref>

Finally, CBPP draws from a diverse set of motivations. Contributors participate to gain knowledge, to produce something useful for them, to build their social capital, to communicate and have a sense of belonging, but also to get financial rewards.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Erden|first1=Zeynep|last2=Krogh|first2=Georg Von|last3=Kim|first3=Seonwoo|date=2012|title=Knowledge Sharing in an Online Community of Volunteers: The Role of Community Munificence|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1740-4762.2012.01039.x|journal=European Management Review|language=en|volume=9|issue=4|pages=213–227|doi=10.1111/j.1740-4762.2012.01039.x|s2cid=154003396 |issn=1740-4762|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Krogh|first1=G. V.|last2=Haefliger|first2=S.|last3=Spaeth|first3=S.|last4=Wallin|first4=M. W.|date=2012|title=Carrots and Rainbows: Motivation and Social Practice in Open Source Software Development|url=https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/5955/|journal=MIS Quarterly|language=en|volume=36|issue=2|pages=649–676|doi=10.2307/41703471 |jstor=41703471 |s2cid=6849556 }}</ref> So, the price-incentivized production does exist in CBPP but it is relegated to being a peripheral concept only.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Wealth of Networks {{!}} Yale University Press|url=https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300125771/wealth-networks|access-date=2021-06-24|website=yalebooks.yale.edu}}</ref> Moreover, public infrastructure and institutions make the digital economy possible to begin with, by regulating the conditions under which service providers can offer services, information is transmitted and users get access to it. It is only after all the above are in place that competition and price-incentives can actually function. Hence, the dominance of one modality over the other is not an outcome of “natural selection,” rather a result of political definition. The state steers competition and profit-motives, implicitly rationalizing the produced economic outcomes, in the way they are measured in business and national accounts. Likewise, the state could use similar leverages to enable and support the direct creation of public purpose value by the civil society and commons-based enterprises.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Citation|last1=Pazaitis|first1=Alex|title=Peer Production and State Theory: Envisioning a Cooperative Partner State|date=2020-11-21|url=https://zenodo.org/record/4415340|work=The Handbook of Peer Production|pages=359–370|place=Hoboken|publisher=Wiley|isbn=978-1-119-53709-0|access-date=2021-06-24|last2=Drechsler|first2=Wolfgang}}</ref>

==See also==

* [[GiftCargo economycult]]

* [[Gift economy]]
* ''[[The Wealth of Networks]]''

==References==