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reimagining Capitalism (part five: p2p sharing)

Ok. If my last post on Capitalism as Open Source didn’t trip all of you non-technology people up, then this one probably will. I’ll try to explain in simply again. But I’ve been thinking about p2p sharing as it relates to our economic systems.

p2p Sharing is a type of file sharing. p2p is short for peer-to-peer. Although the history of file sharing went back almost to the beginning of the internet, p2p Sharing didn’t really become “the norm” until a little guy in a college dorm room launched Napster back in 1999.

If you wanted to download a song (a file) you had to go to a specific location out on the internet and download it directly from the original source. Think of it like a train. If you wanted to get some cargo (songs or files) from point A (the source) to point B (your computer) you had to do it through direct links to the original source.

That’s how p2p (or peer-to-peer) sharing started. You would host your files out on the internet somewhere. And someone would come and download them directly from your source.

If you wanted a song, you went to an online database (or supercomputer) that stored all of the songs that had been hosted and downloaded it directly from there. Kind of like Costco or Sam’s. You went into the big super warehouse and walked the aisles until you found what you wanted and then you downloaded it directly from that super warehouse.

But eventually things began to morph. Mostly due to all of the legal problems created by downloading illegal music, the way we shared files began to change. If you were the owner or supplier to the big super warehouse, you could be found. Your name. Your computer. Your downloading history. Essentially you could get traced and get sued.

But then p2p Networks started popping up. No longer were files and songs hosted at a specific super computer warehouse type model of storage.

Instead . . . and this is really hard to explain . . . bits and pieces of each song or file were distributed among all of the computers that were a part of the network or community. So today if you share files in a p2p Network . . . a little bit of the file is stored on your computer, a little bit of is stored on another user’s computer in California, and a little bit is stored on another user’s computer in London.

No longer do you get information by loading the train and taking it from point A to point B. Now there is no train track. If you download a file in a p2p Network, you are no longer downloading things in a linear fashion. You are downloading in a web. A web of interconnectedness.

I no longer “own” the file at a central location (my computer). Instead I “share” the file with many other users (my network).

Sometimes I’ll have the majority of the file on my computer. Other times I’ll only be in possession of a fraction of it. Sometimes the file will be divided and shared between 3 or 4 users. And at times it’ll be shared by thousands. Like any good web it’s always in flux. Changing. Growing. Tearing. Mending.

I’m becoming really intrigued by this and how it relates to Capitalism. Especially since the things that I “own” aren’t really mine to begin with. They’re just temporarily in my possession.

I read a story recently (and I wish for the life of me I could remember where I read it and am sure I will butcher it in anyway) . . . but there was this group of monks that lived a long time ago. And they made a cake from some very rare, expensive, and special ingredients. They wanted to send it to a monastery that was down the road from them. So they prepared the cake. And because of the cost and time involved it was an extremely gracious gift. They sent it to them. When the other monks received it, they were so overwhelmed by the generosity of the gift and so overcome with thanks that they decided to pass the gift along to the next monastery. Where the same thing happened. Upon receiving the gift they were so grateful that they couldn’t bring themselves to eat such a precious gift. And so on down the road it went. Monastery to monastery. Until one day . . . it finally returned to the source. To the ones who made it. Speechless and awestruck . . . they decided to throw a party and invite all of the monastery’s that they knew of.

While the illustration is a bit elementary it is just this vision of the economy of God that is challenging me to the core. Giving and passing along what I have. Much like a p2p Network. Sometimes I need things and sometimes I don’t.

A great example of this is Newman’s Own. Paul Newman started this company for his daughter Nell back in 1982. The company is a for-profit organization, but then Paul Newman donates all profits to charity after expenses and taxes. So this is a capitalistic, for-profit company but who is playing by a different set of rules.

They’ve given away over 200 million dollars to educational charities.

That’s a bigger vision of capitalism. Realizing that after the bills have been paid that whatever is left over gets passed along.

And this isn’t a company that is doing things cheaply or poorly. They maintain excellent employee relationships. Steward the environment. And maintain the highest standards in product quality. And they still give away 100% of profits to the tune of $200 million.

So what are your thoughts? Is p2p Networks possible in our economy? What would it cost us? What about our churches? Could they operate on a peer-to-peer basis in sharing resources? What resources are necessities? And what aren’t?

Buildings, cars, salaries, retirement, sound systems, xBox 360’s, houses, computers?

Tags: Capitalism, p2p Sharing, p2p Networks, Open Source Capitalism, Newman’s Own

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