[iDC] Tyelr Cowen inadvertently, unknowingly stumbles across the conference theme

[James Grimmelmann]

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/10/all-externalities-everywhere-all-the-time.html

@tylercowen Just noticed that your praise of twitter was almost all  
externalities--ways a nonuser could benefit. Perverse sort of praise.

That is Hyperpape, from Twitter.  By "nonuser" I think he means "non- 
tweeter," not non-reader or non-searcher.  In my portrait Twitter  
consists mainly of social benefits yet it offers few private gains for  
many generators of the content.  So why do so many people do it?   
Maybe it tricks our instincts for sociability or connection.

If suppliers can control our environments to an increasing degree, and  
thus trick our instincts, is "all externalities" the production  
paradigm of the future?  Is that what the web is about?

Maybe I should tweet that.

It would be odd if a medium which appears to offer so much choice in  
fact tricks and enslaves us to work for others.