Knowledge Map of the Information Economy

"Humanity now seems bent on creating a world economy primarily based on goods that take no material
form. In doing so, we may be eliminating any predictable connection between creators and a fair reward
for the utility or pleasure others may find in their works" (Barlow 4). This economy is what we are striving for in many different digital industries. Have User created and generated content that can directly arrive at the consumers' "hands" without a middle man, or someone who profits from providing the resources. In the material world there is manufacturing, production, and transportation, which makes it so that the average creator will have extremely limited access to this type of market, the is very difficult to penetrate into that type of market. The need for existing wealth and connections makes it difficult.

But with digital user created content distribution, the goal is to get rid of the middle man. "The user-created virtual goods segment consists of activities for producing and selling user-generated virtual items, textures and other artificially scarce virtual objects for virtual environments such as Second Life and Instant Messaging Virtual Universe (IMVU)" (Infodev). This type of digital economy allows those without existing wealth or connections to be able to share their products within a system or online game in order to hopefully make a profit. Of course at this time there is always the middle man, those that provide the service, will take a percentage of the money earned .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAoDsOV_a3Y

Some of the games that support this type of economy at this moment are the Dota 2 (Valve) that can be made for a profit. If one were to make a desirable virtual item, it will be picked by the company to be put up for sale, and Valve will take a portion of the profit. Games such as Little Bit Planet or Infamous 2 also support user created content, but are all offered for free, and creators will not make any profit. Something more different but also ties into the idea of a virtual user created economy is from Diablo 3, where the in-game auction house can be used for in-game currency or real-world money. This creates people who are called "'gold farmers' refers to a game laborer who plays an online game in order to produce virtual currency that can be sold for real money. The first “gold farms”, offices where multiple farmers sit at rows of computers and earn wages by producing virtual currency, probably evolved from gaming cafés" (Infordev). This essentially creates entire teams of people who do nothing, not even really play the game but just try to collect money in game so they can sell that for real money. There are many other types of virtual economy that is bound to surface in the foreseeable future, but what this means is that this is what companies should focus on because its potential is massive, in many industries, not just gaming.