Id quot circumiret, circumveniat. YES! I truly believe in this phrase. No wait; you do not understand Latin do you? Well Id quot circumiret, circumveniat simply means what comes around goes around. Almost everyone would expect something in return for the help, information or advice; if not at that point of time, somewhere down the road. Using the same concept, Internet users who give ‘free’ advice; information or online material would be entitled to believe that the person(s) who received them would return the favour would do the same later. Believers of Id quot circumiret, circumveniat, would agree that do good for every good received. However, what about the bad you have received? Well, that is a question for another

blog entry!

OK OK…back to the topic. Humans are social animals. We like to form groups wherever we go, be it in school, work or on the Internet. These online groups can range from those with similar interests to sexual orientation to place of work or study. Online groups are more affectionately called online communities or forums. Examples of online communities range from Something Awful, Del.icio.us, Hospitality Club, Bellezzadimodo and more.

Bellezzadimodo, or to simply put Belle, is a online community of Singaporean women to chat, shop, sell, buy, share information of eateries, shopping deals and more. This community is where ‘free’ information is passed on to others in the group. Information and advice passed are collectively known as public goods. Public goods are ‘goods that anyone might benefit from, regardless of whether they have helped contribute to their production’ (Kollok, 1999). In communities such as Belle, almost everything in the forum is public goods. Where by, any information posted can be used, studied, reproduced, reposted anywhere else. Anything put up on Belle becomes public good, where each person viewed cannot lessen information. Also, there is no way of stopping group members from viewing that piece of information. For example, any piece of information I post up on Belle in the “Wedding Affair” topic, would be viewed by everyone in the forum and the information presented will not change as the number visits. I would expect someone to either rebut or add to the information I have posted up and eventually help me in the future when I have queries.

The question of is Belle a gift economy is simple. Bellazzadimodo is a gift economy. It allows users to share and exchange information. ‘What is a gift? Carrier (1991, p. 122) expands on the classic work by Mauss (1935) to define a gift as (1) the obligatory transfer, (2) of inalienable objects or services, (3) between related and mutually obligated transactors’ (Kollok, 1999). Basically, a gift is an item or information passed from one person to another without the expectation of something in return. Belle, like many other forums found online it enables users to gift exchange. However, problems will arise out of this. There are bound to be users who freeload of all the information they can receive and not give anything in return. This can be seen when sprees (online shopping) are organized. Some users wait for others to organize on sites giving discounts. They do not give organisers any update on other shopping websites. Users organize sprees, linking to the original website, asking other users to place orders and pay via bank transfer on the same day. The spree organizer does not make any money out of this, but everyone gets something out of this. The organizer receives further discounts for other sprees and eventually member cards or member privileges. The other users pay less for shipping and receive discounts on the items they have purchased. In the case of Belle, only the shopping website makes money.

Belle’s sprees do help the economy of the country of the website origin. More shopping forums like this help many economies all around the world. However, money is not the only thing that makes the world go round. In the early days, markets were where people come together to exchange what they have to get what they need. It’s the idea of giving something in return for something else that started the idea of money. These forums are simply using the old idea of barter trade, infusing it with today’s technology. You get what you give, Id quot circumiret, circumveniat.

References

Wikipedia (2007), Virtual Community http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_community Retrieved Date: 6/2/2007

Open Source Definition (2007), Voices from the open source revolution http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/perens.html Retrieved Date: 6/2/2007