Cooperative Frameworks and the Future of the Internet

by Hugh M. Lewis

Cooperative frameworks are the thing of the future, and they represent the convergence of Internet based business with changing patterns of social networking, interpersonal relations and interactions, and community based organization and group formation. It is my own humble opinion in short that by means of cooperative frameworks people, of all shapes and sizes, otherwise lacking large assets of surplus resources, are empowering themselves for mutual advantage and positioning, not only in the virtual world, but as a consequence in the real world as well. It provides a means of consolidating and pooling shared resources, and provisioning people with resource networks at reduce costs, than would be otherwise available to the same individuals or parties/companies vis-a'-vis the conventional world of business, government, and the structural systems in which they are usually entrapped.

The root of the word cooperative is "to cooperate" or simple to "operate together." To cooperate is defined as "to work or act together or jointly for a common purpose or benefit" (Webster's Unabridged, 2001) A cooperative is therefore defined simply as "a jointly owned enterprise engaging in the production or distribution of goods or the supplying of services, operated by its members for their mutual benefit, typically organized by consumers or farmers." Cooperatives are springing up in increasing numbers of areas that were previously dominated by conventional capitalist, corporate styled business frameworks. Indeed, the conventional, or classical corporation seems to be a relic of the past, as corporations are increasingly recognized for their corruption, unaccountability and unreliability in meeting the needs of their consumer or even their share-holder base. Home-based business development that is the springboard of the emergent Internet economy is ideally suited for cooperative style business arrangements, as such modes of business are typically represented by small entrepreneurs with very small resource allocation budgets at their disposal, but a maximum of networking potential, potentially global in scale, available at the click of a mouse-button.

The main trend of the Information revolution as contextualized by the Internet is the tendency towards business leading towards open forums defined by the least common denominator, i.e., the cheapest prices in competitive market places. In other words, people will in the long run tend to buy a product/service at the cheapest price they can find on the Internet, and this tendency will serve to counter trends towards general price increases, especially after markets become relatively saturated with certain types of products/services. Only monopolistic advantage produce by strategic interference competition leading to a bottlenecking of critical internet resources can counter this general tendency, and monopolistic advantage, even by conglomerates, cannot be held in perpetuity against the tidal currents of the worldwide web towards a common, open and completely shared resource pool on an open global network. 

Hierarchies should become "lateralized" toward more horizontal affiliations and arrangements. We should see fixed, static, and entirely top-down hierarchies shift towards more reciprocal and open-ended network structures that are based upon the dynamics and ebb and flow of available resources. Roles in such systems will also become largely modular and fluid, multi-faceted in identity. 

As a consequence of this, it is hoped that the Internet will create cumulatively greater access, both to information, and other more substantial forms of resources, for more people, as larger scale human systems come to be reorganized and redefined in terms that are more coordinate and consonant with the principles of Internet and especially web-based development.

One caveat to all of this--the web is only as open as the structural system that permits its possibility and freedom. The web is not the same in all societies, in in totalitarian regimes as in mainland China, the web is anything but free, and largely a platform for Big Brother type control. If a society permits and promotes freedom of the Internet, then real freedom will be the long-term benefit. If freedom of the Internet is arrested before it has a chance to develop, then unfreedom and growing human frustration is likely to be the major outcome.

General Systems Essays, Vol. I