We set the scene for how we view the economics of Sigala by listing some basic features.
- The design will reflect a new economic model that brings into balance the personal, impersonal, and trans-personal, where monetary aspects are just apart of economic transaction.
- The design will adopt as a core component one that exemplifies non-monetary exchange. This will be in accordance with the economy of regard as developed by Avner Offer.
- Other kinds of [e]valuation systems will need to be introduced for non-monetary aspects.
- The main driver is the gift economy (c.f. Wikipedia) and the network effect.
- Sigala is distinguished from others in the quality of the communication network and channels. In connecting people in appropriate ways, the design builds a trusted network. In such a network, people have more confidence and willingness to purchase goods and services, particularly via recommendations, as in, for example, buzz marketing, but with the additional assurance that they know the provenance, who exactly makes the recommendation and how they are related to them. In a network where quality rather than quantity of connections is more important, when someone gives a recommendation it’s more likely that their connections will value it.
- Similarly, marketing can be targeted using more meaningful groups, rather than merely on impersonalised data, which is a consumerist approach. “Would you recommend this to a friend?” really does mean friend; to a colleague would mean someone who works in the same line of business, and so on. This should be underpinned by semantic web technologies that enhance contextual meaning – a product was “used by”, “used for”, etc.
- Economic distinctions between global and local are reflected in system design with core systems and services that provide the basic global functions; and application layer that provides additional functionality according to local conditions.
- The core systems and services follows the design of the Internet itself in being fundamentally open and having distributed ownership, so it is not a single company with currency pumped up by market forces. Rather it is like water that draws from any available source and finds its own level.
We continue the analysis by focusing on the significance of personal relationships in economic activity.