Managing creativity: the tensions between commodities and gifts in a digital networked environment

Abstract

In this paper, I critically examine the management of creativity in a digital networked economic and social environment, which broadly comprises high-speed Internet connections and a diverse ecology of devices and other infrastructure. The non-rivalrous and non-excludable characteristics of information, in this environment, pose distinct challenges for the industrial producers of creativity (such as film studios, publishing houses, record labels). The paper uses the case of media and entertainment to pursue two analytical goals. The first is to conceptualize the networked environment as a seedbed for myriad ‘Internet gift economies’, which are broadly defined by decentralized social production and sharing of resources within networks of computer users (or peers). The second is to consider the extent to which Internet gift economies can be regulated in a fashion that incorporates scope for some degree of commodification. I therefore seek to identify potential routes towards more balanced ‘peer-based’ models, which combine the power of Internet gift economies with the ongoing reproduction of industrialized creativity. There is a brief conclusion, where I comment upon the challenges facing the long-term expansion and legalization of Internet gift economies.

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