February 21st, 2007

Designing Relationships

by Joshua Porter  |   5 Comments  |  shortlink: http://bokardo.com/p/573

Cluetrain Manifesto co-author Doc Searls, in the must-read Building an Relationship Economy:

‘”All markets work at three levels”, he said. “Transactions, conversations and relationships”. Eric is an atheist. Sayo is a Christian. With those two triangulating so similarly on the same subject, I began to figure there was something more to this relationship business.’

Doc starts this excellent piece by wondering what we can learn about economy from open-source practices. A lot, it seems. When we look at something like the incredible creation of Linux, what does that tell us about what we value and why and how we get stuff done?

Well, for one thing it’s not always about the money, which, if you live in the U.S., you would be hard-pressed to believe. So much is about the money here that imagining great software being built by volunteers is mind boggling in itself.

This insight leads Doc to a wide-ranging discussion evolving around the idea that we’re just beginning to model interpersonal relationships online. That, when we stand back from our transaction-oriented mindset we realize that there is another level to economies that happens on the relationship level. We treat people differently based on our relationship with them, and it directly effects the economy when we make trades based on those relationships.

From a social design perspective this is right on. We’re continuing to model our social lives online, and while at the present moment all systems are transaction-based maybe they’ll be more nuanced going forward?

So, in the future when I want to trade something online I can set different transaction preferences depending on the strength of my relationship with someone. The relationship affects the transaction. If I’m trading with a stranger, they pay full price. If I’m trading with a Bokardoan, I trade half-price. And so on. This, as Doc points out, is how economies run on a personal level, in 3rd world countries, before they go global on the Web.

As Doc says, we need a solid identity framework for this to work, and given that just yesterday another giant (Digg) said they would support OpenID, that might be the framework that gets us there.

For Doc’s brilliant wide-ranging take on this, please read: Building an Relationship Economy

Check out my latest project: Make them Care!, a book on designing great sign-up experiences. Get reminded when it's published.

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Comments

1.  Johan 3:49pm, Thu 22nd, 2007

When you look at commercial transactions from a social perspective, you cannot exclude the cultural aspect. As humans, we build our *economic* relationships based on values, preference, opportunities, satisfaction and convenience where ethics do play a paramount role.

For example, you might have this situation where you would pay more for the same thing just because that seller means more to you, than another selller that you regard as less valuable (interpersonal validation) and offers the same product for less.

2.  fettisch 3:24pm, Mon 26th, 2007

Well i think people forget too often that as humans we are social beings, and as being so it is natural for us to help each other, since we have a common goal.
This social quality, which has been suppressed for ages through the many forms of slavery, lead to the deprivatation and alienation of our true selfs.
This true identity reveals itself now in a new, global community, and it shows that it is human nature to have a strong urge to support each other, to give something valueable to the community, and it shows that the satisfaction to be recognized by others outweighs financial benfication by far.

3.  BillyWarhol 5:56pm, Mon 26th, 2007

I am hoping a whole New Worldwide Economy comes out of this Web2.0 Social Networking that has arisen the last coupla years!

Rock On Doc!!

Cheers! Billy ;) )

Peace*