Closed theo-cox closed 1 year ago
theo-cox
commented
1 year ago @rufuspollock SCQA about site transition published (PR https://github.com/life-itself/diginomics/pull/75). Shall I now close this issue or leave it open for publication of other (user perspective) SCQA?
If the latter, shall I just get that straight up?
rufuspollock
commented
1 year ago @theo-cox i've created #76 to split out the external SCQA work so let's close this and then work in there.
rufuspollock
commented
1 year ago FIXED. @theo-cox drafted in #75 and I've refactored and posted. 🚢
Acceptance
Notes
19 Jan Meeting
Metaphor: baking …
We are going to teach you how to “bake” [design] the funding of your database or software (or really any digital good).
Imagine you were set to make bread … and you knew nothing about baking or the ingredients involved. It would be a struggle, right. Well, frankly that’s what happening most of the time today when people come to “bake” aka design the funding and provision of their database or software – especially in complex areas such as …
Stop wasting time and reinventing the wheel: learn …
We are going to teach you … What are the key ingredients How you can combine them together (some combinations just won’t work! Don’t waste your time trying to invent a solution that’s impossible. It would be like trying to create a baguette using only sourdough!) Also, don’t waste your time overengineering things with little consequence e.g. maybe charging $5 vs $10 a month isn’t going to make a difference - choosing what to dust your finished loaf with isn’t going to make or break the recipe What are the resulting major options (what types of bread can you make) How do facts of your industry or ecosystem limit or shape the options you have
INSERT: metaphor table … (bread vs digital ecosystem)
Subject: models for funding databases, software and other “digital/information” goods – and their ingredients and typology
Question: what options do I have for resourcing [incentivizing] the production and distribution of these digital goods – and which should i choose Question: is this reader … [policymaker / funder / an ecosystem weaver 🤣] Have technical expertise but not economists Responsible for creation and proper running of systems that rely on information goods being shared [Entrepreneur] Someone building a business [A consumer] What’s the best option for generating (social) value from the database / software etc we are producing / distributing What’s the best option for incentivising the production/distribution of the information good i want to be produced/distributed, and why?
Answer: “We’ll teach you how to bake” Good, specialist, mechanism design is needed for sustainability and functionality. There is this basic list of ingredients to creating a “economic/business model” and using combinations of these you can create [4] main types of model.
Situation You want to build/fund a digital goods (e.g. database or data ecosystem) These goods are different somehow from e.g. a bakery or making steel Digital goods present specific issues (not found in our old school economy) re funding etc Costless copying: marginal cost is not a good guide to pricing.. Rise of open Hyper complex value chains. Aggregation is often central: data usually valuable aggregated and can be thousands or even millions of “suppliers” (think of openstreetmap or carbon emissions in consumer goods). Potentially significant fixed costs of production. Even if creation/production of individual items can be close to zero eg. data stream from a single IoT device or data produced as side product of existing activity. “quality production” is expensive (aggregated, consolidated, unified data). A working software product. Gap between private and social (or even sectoral) cost-benefit equations re data production/sharing - incentives aren’t “baked in” like they are for saleable physical goods (excuse the pun) - Adam Smith butcher and baker parable breaks down. .Even in cases of private benefit, these can be subtle and not apparent to key decision-makers (e.g. efficiency gains in ways that aren't apparent upfront) => disinclination to invest This makes it (uniquely) hard (you don’t need a special session on how to run a bakery vs another type of business. The European Commission is not involved in funding bakeries. But they are involved in databases) Lots of struggle: e.g. databases that disappear, or have repeated sustainability crises, key data sources that become monopolized and very expensive. People who are funding or building data systems often … create things that aren’t sustainable [especially in multi-stakeholder environments (e.g. firms sharing data across a supply chain, public environmental databases etc etc).] Don’t know much economics or mechanism design Focus on tech vs the economics: people often spend more time designing the structure of their data than they do thinking about the funding of their data (and its distribution)
=== too general === Digital goods are widespread Development and sharing ever more important (both for profit making and social value creation) People are struggling: Monopolies and price gouging Open databases that aren’t maintained Market failures abound
Complication Trial and error invent baking on your own Muddle through Reinvent the wheel => often fail, or at very least suboptimal outcomes => highly inefficient
Earlier A10
Alternative (earlier) one in A10: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1USSez4_suV3FqXuG6HY0uwLRMhSKbb6gX9Sytg6FGig/edit#heading=h.599vpyhb8naq