GigaOM

Finally, finally… people are discussing the economic aspects of the community-based start-ups. I brought up this question last week, but apparently everyone was sweating Google. So prompted by Anil versus Caterina debate, more folks have joined the discussion. Jeff Jarvis has a mega-post, which should be a permalink for most of you. Jason from 37Signals chimes in, and so does Michael Parekh. Thomas Hawk has his say. My dear friend Robert Young has the last word: “Without doubt, this whole web 2.0 meme is becoming a Karl Marx vs. Adam Smith type philosophical/economical/political debate of grand proportion. The funny thing is… maybe it is indeed time to up-end all the fundamental assumptions as we know them. Even so, it’ll take decades for such transformations to take place. Meanwhile, the “capitalistic” crew will make much money by optimizing such noise via arbitrage… while the new “Plato’s” will probably end up actually changing the world (but end up poor).”