[iDC] Some notes on value...

[Michael Bauwens]

Question:

Can we not distinguish between commercial brands, and other reputational brands, say like iDC or the P2P Foundation, and if so, what could be a mechanism to carry out that distinction. I think there must be a clear difference between manipulative commercial brands, say Nike, and civil society efforts which can obtain a reputation without such means,

Michel
 
The P2P Foundation researches, documents and promotes peer to peer alternatives.



Wiki and Encyclopedia, at http://p2pfoundation.net; Blog, at http://blog.p2pfoundation.net; Newsletter, at http://integralvisioning.org/index.php?topic=p2p 



Basic essay at http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=499; interview at http://poynder.blogspot.com/2006/09/p2p-very-core-of-world-to-come.html; video interview, at http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2006/09/29/network_collaboration_peer_to_peer.htm


----- Original Message ----
> From: Brian Holmes <brian.holmes at wanadoo.fr>
> To: idc at mailman.thing.net
> Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2008 2:14:47 AM
> Subject: Re: [iDC] Some notes on value...
> 
> Hello all,
> 
> I'm quite sympathetic to the line of thought pursued here. The idea of 
> the esteem economy is worth developing! But I'd like to ask a question 
> about brands and freedom:
> 
> > in the self-understanding of
> > contemporary capitalism, the monetary value of brands are based on
> > their ethical values, their ability to accumulate mass affect.
> >
> > What creates these ethical values? [...] people pay to use brands in
> > their everyday life and thus freely co-produce their ethical value
> > through their constructive consumer practices. On financial markets,
> > capital flows to the most attractive brands. More means more in this
> > case, if you have accumulated a significant stock of ethical capital,
> > people will freely give you their time and further attention, or, on
> > financial markets, their capital.
> 
> But how free is this when millions of dollars are pumped into 
> advertising a brand, analyzing the consumers' use of a product and 
> reaction to its advertising, then readjusting both brand image and 
> product (not to mention product placement, store architecture etc) to 
> fit closer to the model developed by the analysis? Hasn't the 
> accumulation of mass affect been calculated and engineered?
> 
> I ask the question because there is a big emphasis right now on the 
> freedom of people to do this or that with the net, at the same time as 
> it is more and more flooded with ads and surveillance. And though I 
> appreciate all freedoms, I am not sure they expand when you just ignore 
> real constraints. Still, great post, great thread, this is just a 
> question of detail.
> 
> best, Brian
> 
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