Differentiation is a standard concept for analyzing competition. It describes a common situation, where one firm develops the ability to serve one type of customer in a market—say, buyers who will pay a lot to save time—while a competing firm serves another—say, budget-conscious buyers who are patient. Differentiation can describe common competitive behavior in technology …
Revenge Editing and Wikipedia
Unless you regularly read Salon, you probably missed last week's interesting article about anextraordinary case of revenge editing on Wikipedia. This article should matter to anyone who cares about Wikipedia, and, more generally, it should matter to anyone who cares about the long run success of open platforms for accumulating content. Look, the world is …
Crowd-Sourcing and Crowd-Hunting and the Boston Marathon Bomb Brothers.
How did the Boston Marathon Bombing brothers get caught? The release of videos played a key role. This decision to release this video has been called many things – a risky decision, a calculated bet, a crucial turning point, and a fortunate use of crowd-sourcing. Let’s not get sloppy with the use of modern lingo. …
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The On Line Honesty Box
Many vendors give away free services, but usually there is a catch. For example, while Google has given away search services for more than a decade, no user has any illusions as to why. Advertising buys space and tries to reach readers. As another example, for many years US cellular carriers came close to giving …
Consumer Surplus in the Online Economy
The Economist sponsors a blog called Free exchange. This week Free exchange solicited posts to complement an article in the magazine that discusses challenges measuring the consumer surplus generated by the internet. They invited experts in the field to comment on the piece and on related research. I made a contribution explaining the challenges in …
A Legend in Economics Passes
By Professor Thomas N. Hubbard, Senior Associate Dean, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University Armen Alchian died yesterday. He was 98. Many economists of my generation did not know Armen personally. However, signs of his work are pervasive in the field. There are many good examples of this in the research and teaching of many …
Game Structure
For several years, commentators have forecast that the rise in smartphones and tablets, as well as Facebook, would upend the structure of the gaming market. A variety of novel adroit aliens and irascible animals symbolically represent the new order, while new companies from new genres alter the identities of suppliers. Methinks that all the talk …
Postdoctoral Fellow in Infrastructure Studies
The University of Michigan announces an eleven-month postdoctoral fellowship position. The position will start September 1, 2013. Position Description The Department of Communication Studies (in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts) and the School of Information are jointly offering a postdoctoral fellow position in the multidisciplinary area of “infrastructure studies.” The addition of …
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The FTC and Google: What did Larry Learn?
The FTC and Google settled their differences last week, putting the final touches on an agreement. Commentators began carping from all sides as soon as the announcement came. The most biting criticisms have accused the FTC of going too easy on Google. Frankly, I think the commentators are only half right. Yes, it appears as …
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Technology Awards for 2012
It is time to end this year by giving out technology awards! This post contains a baker’s dozen. They go to firms and managers who took notable actions in technology markets in 2012. There are no fixed categories of awards. Some categories are recycled from last year's awards, but some are new. Just like last …
Digitopoly 