<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.5730.11" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<DIV><SPAN><FONT face=Arial>Thanks Sam for the summary of David Bollier's paper,
which is itself a summary of his notes from an Aspen Institute round table. I
remember the buzz around "push" vs. "pull" models -- the ever
finer articulation of consumer demand that becomes determinative of
production -- but hadn't thought about it lately, esp. in relation
to social networks.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN></SPAN><SPAN><FONT face=Arial>More people creating
more themselves and being more active in creative processes is a
good thing, like education, lesbian moms and apple
pie:) </FONT></SPAN><SPAN><FONT face=Arial>One problem, much discussed
here and on other lists, is about</FONT></SPAN><SPAN> effectiveness and
exploitation; and that's where I'm thinking agency theory might be
useful. </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN></SPAN><SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><FONT face=Arial>What I'm interested in is the link between
creation and reception, between creator and audience,
where </FONT></SPAN><SPAN><SPAN><FONT face=Arial>are a number
of agent-like tasks:</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN><FONT face=Arial></FONT></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN><FONT face=Arial>a) contact and relationship
building</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN><FONT face=Arial>b) presentation and
promotion</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN><FONT face=Arial>c) value
judgments</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN><FONT face=Arial>d) aggregation of responses,
and </FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN><FONT face=Arial>e) publication of response
results. </FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN></SPAN><SPAN><FONT face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN><FONT face=Arial>Agency theory has, in my very limited
understanding of it, arisen to resolve problems between principals and agents
due to incomplete and asymetric information, inefficiencies that stifle
effective representation. (Bernard Roddy pointed out that the theory is
'burdened' by the business context where these issues tend to
have critical economic consequences, but I don't see that as a reason to
discount the theoretical apparatus as such: an "agent" that fails to
build good networks, misrepresents the work or improperly values it, or who
doesn't appropriately provide feedback or celebrate success needs to
held accountable, whether we're talking about Chrysler or
MySpace:)</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN><FONT face=Arial>So the question that arises is whether in the
p2p environment of the Web, agency is as efficient and effective as we
tend to think it is.</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN>Speaking strictly from personal experience, within relatively
small networks like this one, I feel represented and, in terms of the
esteemed audience who I hope have read this far down in this post, it seems
quite efficient.</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN>anyway, this is intended only to open
discussion...</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN>Sam's summary of Bollier's paper:</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN><A
href="http://www.cooperationcommons.com/Documents/EntryView?id=129">http://www.cooperationcommons.com/Documents/EntryView?id=129</A></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN>Bollier's original paper:</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN><A
href="http://www.aspeninstitute.org/atf/cf/%7BDEB6F227-659B-4EC8-8F84-8DF23CA704F5%7D/2005InfoTechText.pdf">http://www.aspeninstitute.org/atf/cf/%7BDEB6F227-659B-4EC8-8F84-8DF23CA704F5%7D/2005InfoTechText.pdf</A></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN>The principal-agent problem on Wikipedia</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN><A
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal-agent_problem">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal-agent_problem</A></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN><SPAN></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN><SPAN>- Robert Labossiere</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV></SPAN><SPAN><FONT
face=Arial></FONT></SPAN> </DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>