Ghosh, Rishab Aiyer. “Cooking Pot Markets:  An Economic Model for Trade in Free Goods and Services on the Internet.” First Monday 3.2 (1998). 2/15/2010 <http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/580/501>.

This article considers the motivations for producing free products – like Firefox, Netscape and other open-source (or not) freeware – for download over the internet.  The author argues that neither money nor altruism is the key motivator for free goods producers; rather, Ghosh notes that cultural and social capital and reputation are some of the key motivators behind free goods and services in the digital world.

A key tenet of Ghosh’s argument is the distinction drawn between value and money.  According to Ghosh, the value derived from the economics of gossip or other economic goods produced in the knowledge economy can be just as valuable as money because the economic logic of the internet values buzz as much as profit.  In addition to the exposure argument, Ghosh notes how all transactions on the we are actually participations in a market logic of give and take of knowledge in the information economy; furthermore, because the net is dynamically reevaluating itself at all times  – especially in the individuated nature of internet navigation and reading practices – the value derived through your unique interaction on the web is unique every time – it always has a new price tag.

The cooking pot model suggests that people not only produce goods to create a better web persona/reputation, but that they also take “ideas” from others contributing to the pot.  Because duplication is a nearly zero-effort (materially) process in digital worlds the contribution of an idea can be multiplied exponentially.  The utility of these ideas encourages further idea generation and submission into the cooking pot economy.