PICNIC 2012: NEW OWNERSHIP

The theme of Picnic 2012 was new ownership, which is neatly explained in a quote by Alvin Toffler’s:

“We live at a moment when the entire structure of power that held the world together is now disintegrating. And this is happening at every level of society.”

As a social media specialist my mind automatically started to wander. It didn’t seem like a “new” theme. Within Social media the power shift has been going on for years, but companies don’t own their brand anymore, the consumers do. And, because of the on-going trend of transparency companies tend to open up and let the consumers see what they are doing and let them take control.

So, I was interested how they were going to take on this theme from a new and innovative perspective.  I kicked my day off with a presentation by Farid Tabarki, director of Studio Zeitgeist. As trend watcher of the year he emphasised the importance of transparency to create new ownership. He explained this principal with examples like Recovery, which is a site created by the US Government to show the amount of tax money coming in and how it is spent. Consumers can see how much money is spent and on which project. They can see the status, and report if the project is done well. This way the consumer is able to “own” projects done by the US government and they can check if the projects are progressing according to plan.

New ownership does not only mean companies are giving the consumers more control. It is also about taking control. Cathal Garvey showed a great presentation on Bio hacking. He and a group of enthusiastic scientists aim to help make biology a worthwhile pursuit for citizen scientists, amateur biologists, and do-it-yourself biological engineers. They provide them with the necessary tips and affordable equipment. They share their findings online and in real life. For example, they found cures for diseases, which were not deemed profitable enough for study and inclusion within the product portfolios of healthcare industry majors.

New ownership is also giving people control, as seen in the presentation by Bas van Abel (Waag society). As head of the Open Design Lab he became intrigued by the recycle possibilities of new Smartphone’s, and also the detail surrounding the extraction and application of associated smartphone raw materials. He decided it was time for a sustainable Smartphone, available to everyone (especially to people in Third World countries). The project is called Fairphone, and the phone is produced with sustainable mined raw materials and is modular by nature so it is easy to repair and re-use. This was not a top down decision by the big phone producing companies but an example of an initiative by a group of consumers.

The Highlight of the PicNic festival was the presentation given by Tim O’ Reilly. He is “the founder” of web 2.0 and a great supporter of open source software. He started with one very true thought:

“Create more value, than you capture”

This boils down to the fact that every company should create more value for its customers than the owners take out of the company. In Silicon Valley many new start-up are busier finding venture capital and creating an exit strategy for when the money comes in, than creating value for their customers. In an economy where people share knowledge, more value is created. For instance, the people who create open source software create a product, which then creates value for other people, start-ups and companies. Without open source software Facebook would not have been built and Kickstarter, a crowd funding website, would not have come into existence. Kickstarter is built upon shared knowledge and is aimed at creating value for its users.

In conclusion: “If we share we all benefit”. If you only have one piece of the puzzle, share it and we might finish the puzzle together. If you have the puzzle solved, share it and someone else might use it to create value for others.