"You got to learn to share, don't be selfish..." my parents said this to me when I was a kid *I'm sure most of our parents said that to us* 15 years later, I still hear, " You got to share, don't be selfish..." However, its not my parents this time. Its the public who demands it now.
According to Wikipedia, Sharing is the joint use of resource. Besides that, sharing also figures prominently in gift economies, and is a key feature in the developing field of free software and open source software, with implications for economics. By looking at the definition alone, we can guess the most basic idea of what gift economy is. A gift economy is an economic system in which the prevalent mode of exchange is for goods and services to be given without explicit agreement upon a quid pro quo (the Latin term for the concept of "a favor for a favor") (Wikipedia, 2007).
People exchange without expecting anything back from the person in return. Sharing is a huge deal over the internet. Anything ranging from music and video files, forums, and advice could be shared among the public.
In the ancient times, sharing of food was practiced in a hunter-gatherer society (Wikipedia, 2007). By doing this, there were no particular individuals to rely on for the food source. The people in the society might not know one another and it was harder for them to be obligated to return the favor. However, a balanced reciprocity would occur within the group as a whole (Kollack,1999). When someone had done a favor for a person they might not know in a group, they would not expect the person himself to return the favor but they anticipate or believe that in future they would also be given the helping hand. Therefore, everyone in the society played a part in it to gather food daily and if they failed to find any, they would not go on an empty stomach as food souce was shared. Not only that, it helped to maintain the survival of the society and kept the community close together.
Today, we are sharing without knowing. I never knew about Youtube until the beginning of last year. It is a popular free video sharing website which lets users upload, view, and share video clips (Wikipedia, 2007). People could share tons of information over this website in video format. For example, we get to download shows that were not aired yet in our county from the uploaders and are able to watch ahead of time. Youtube also allows viewers to leave comments after watching a certain video clip a user upload. If it's a music video or exclusive scenes about your favourite band, you could leave comments about it or share your own experience. It is somewhat like a forum whereby people of similar interest will watch a certain video, they leave their comments and if anyone is interested in what they talked about, they could reply a comment to that. Besides that, uploaders could also get opinions from viewers about certain videos they make, on whether the image and sound is good, or if the viewers like the videos. The comments come about unexpectedly and with the comments, the user could post more videos based on the demanded interest or improve on their last home-made video clips.
THE BAND: a1
For myself, I never posted a video or any comments in Youtube before. However, when I was younger, I used to be nuts about this British pop group known as a1. I logged into their official website often and checked their message board regularly. At first, it was really JUST a message board where fans simply leave their messages for the band. As time goes by, people began to talk about their own experiences with the band. Not only that, many offered to do favors like helping other fans to get autographs and pictures of the band when they dropped by in the county. A simple message board slowly developed into a forum. Fans shared information or asked questions about the band. I remembered that there was this time a1 dropped by in Singapore. As the band was always busy and never really left messages at the website, some fans who did not meet the band at all had their hopes smashed. They wanted so much to give the band their encouragement and support but they did not have a chance to do it. Thus, I offered to help by leaving a message at the website, asking the fans to write down whatever they wanted to say to the band. I'd write down their messages in a beautiful notebook and pass it to them personally as I was going to attend their autograph session. Before long, I get tons of replies to my message. I could not believe how thankful the fans were.
It is human nature to keep things to themselves and that they did not want to share. We can understand that the rarity of a certain thing or certain information is what makes it exclusive and valuable. However, after writing this entry, I am very thankful to those people who made technology so advanced these days, allowing me to access to all kinds of information people shared or uploaded.
REFERENCES:Kollock, Peter (1999). 'The Economies of Online Cooperation; Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace" Retrieved 8:20pm, February 9, 2007 from
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.htmGift Economy (2007). In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 4:45pm, February 8, 2007 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gift_economy&oldid=105681971Sharing. (2007, January 27). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 8:45, February 9, 2007, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sharing&oldid=103691448YouTube. (2007, February 8). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10:20, February 9, 2007, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=YouTube&oldid=106693896
"You got to learn to share, don't be selfish..." my parents said this to me when I was a kid *I'm sure most of our parents said that to us* 15 years later, I still hear, " You got to share, don't be selfish..." However, its not my parents this time. Its the public who demands it now.
For myself, I never posted a video or any comments in Youtube before. However, when I was younger, I used to be nuts about this British pop group known as a1. I logged into their official website often and checked their message board regularly. At first, it was really JUST a message board where fans simply leave their messages for the band. As time goes by, people began to talk about their own experiences with the band. Not only that, many offered to do favors like helping other fans to get autographs and pictures of the band when they dropped by in the county. A simple message board slowly developed into a forum. Fans shared information or asked questions about the band. I remembered that there was this time a1 dropped by in Singapore. As the band was always busy and never really left messages at the website, some fans who did not meet the band at all had their hopes smashed. They wanted so much to give the band their encouragement and support but they did not have a chance to do it. Thus, I offered to help by leaving a message at the website, asking the fans to write down whatever they wanted to say to the band. I'd write down their messages in a beautiful notebook and pass it to them personally as I was going to attend their autograph session. Before long, I get tons of replies to my message. I could not believe how thankful the fans were.