From Static Supply to Dynamic Impact Chains
November 17th, 2005
Mark Grimes said:
I’m thinking the ned online catalogue will look a little something like this at the product level page.
I hope that the shopping cart software will allow for real-time inventory control, but we’ll see how that shapes up.
Product: Sparkle Multicolored Necklace Transparency Report
1: Financial Breakdown: Artisan: $1.08LiA exporter: $0.92Tixeon importer: $0.75Better World Advertising: $1.12Retailer: $2.88Nonprofit distribution: $0.75
2: SROI (social return on investment measurement): (ideas?) Would like to also take something like 5-10% for an ever growing microfinance investment fund too, but that may have to be in future version of this.
Other ideas, thoughts, feedback…
Mark,
Your thinking is ’spot on’ as the Brits say, but we don’t think it goes far enough outside the box of what passes for the eCommerce shopping experience. Just like computer user interfaces are built on the obvious transfer metaphors of ‘desktops’, ‘folders’, ‘trash cans’, etc. So, too, are our notions of eCommerce constrained by transference metaphors of ‘catalogs’, ‘inventory’, and most notoriously, the ’shopping cart’.
There is no good reason — other than that folks will intuitively ‘get it’ — for constraining the on-line shopping experience to that of its real world physical counterpart. Not that these metaphors don’t work. Indeed, they are certainly useful when we are talking about commodity shopping where ease of access and lowest price are primary drivers. This is what we would call shopping in the Big Is Good World of nameless, faceless corporations and their product offerings.
But the Small Is Good World of commerce among empowered, collaborative individuals is completely different. Its alternative marketplaces are based on ‘Who, How, and Why” rather than ‘Who Much and Where’ (price and distribution channel control). That is why the Small Is Good World alternative markets will be story-driven and game-oriented.
Yes, there are elements of story in your prototype example above. But you are taking the concept of story to literally. It is not just the narrative tale of the artisan. And, yes, there is both a story and a gaming element in the Transparency Report. But again, this is all within the context of a static ‘catalog’ and a ’shopping cart’. These metaphors constrain the design of your shopping experience.
By way of analogy, think in terms of today’s on-line massively multi-player games such as ‘Guild Wars’, the ‘Sims On-line’, etc. Certainly there is some bit of traditional narrative employed in these games. But its use is most often ‘back story’ and optional. There is a very personal ’story’ being experienced by these game players. But this story is not at all explicit, nor limited to a narrative presentation. The ‘player’ is a character within the play world, and they actively participate in the story-forming of their very personal experience.
In this same sense, the story-driven and game-oriented alternative markets of the the Small Is Good World marketplaces need to be much more dynamically composable by the shopper/player rather than presented as a shopping cart catalog entry. In other words, that Transparency Report needs to be a breadcrumb trail of commerce impact points that the shopper/player actively story-forms through an interactive experience.
To go deeper with this idea, we encourage you to visit the Entrepreneurial Community Ecosystems page where you will find a link to an article, The Yin Yang of eCommerce Engines. Also, if you are interested, we have been working with a flexible, extensible Open Source Content Management System with a radically cool eCommerce framework acc-on that is an ideal candidate for building this kind of story-driven, game-oriented eCommerce platform.
–Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn–
Entry Filed under: Entrepreneurial Community Ecosystems, Inprosumerism, NED - Philanthropic Franchise
From Static Supply to Dynamic Impact Chains
November 17th, 2005
Mark Grimes said:
I’m thinking the ned online catalogue will look a little something like this at the product level page.
I hope that the shopping cart software will allow for real-time inventory control, but we’ll see how that shapes up.
Product: Sparkle Multicolored Necklace Transparency Report
1: Financial Breakdown: Artisan: $1.08LiA exporter: $0.92Tixeon importer: $0.75Better World Advertising: $1.12Retailer: $2.88Nonprofit distribution: $0.75
2: SROI (social return on investment measurement): (ideas?) Would like to also take something like 5-10% for an ever growing microfinance investment fund too, but that may have to be in future version of this.
Other ideas, thoughts, feedback…
Mark,
Your thinking is ’spot on’ as the Brits say, but we don’t think it goes far enough outside the box of what passes for the eCommerce shopping experience. Just like computer user interfaces are built on the obvious transfer metaphors of ‘desktops’, ‘folders’, ‘trash cans’, etc. So, too, are our notions of eCommerce constrained by transference metaphors of ‘catalogs’, ‘inventory’, and most notoriously, the ’shopping cart’.
There is no good reason — other than that folks will intuitively ‘get it’ — for constraining the on-line shopping experience to that of its real world physical counterpart. Not that these metaphors don’t work. Indeed, they are certainly useful when we are talking about commodity shopping where ease of access and lowest price are primary drivers. This is what we would call shopping in the Big Is Good World of nameless, faceless corporations and their product offerings.
But the Small Is Good World of commerce among empowered, collaborative individuals is completely different. Its alternative marketplaces are based on ‘Who, How, and Why” rather than ‘Who Much and Where’ (price and distribution channel control). That is why the Small Is Good World alternative markets will be story-driven and game-oriented.
Yes, there are elements of story in your prototype example above. But you are taking the concept of story to literally. It is not just the narrative tale of the artisan. And, yes, there is both a story and a gaming element in the Transparency Report. But again, this is all within the context of a static ‘catalog’ and a ’shopping cart’. These metaphors constrain the design of your shopping experience.
By way of analogy, think in terms of today’s on-line massively multi-player games such as ‘Guild Wars’, the ‘Sims On-line’, etc. Certainly there is some bit of traditional narrative employed in these games. But its use is most often ‘back story’ and optional. There is a very personal ’story’ being experienced by these game players. But this story is not at all explicit, nor limited to a narrative presentation. The ‘player’ is a character within the play world, and they actively participate in the story-forming of their very personal experience.
In this same sense, the story-driven and game-oriented alternative markets of the the Small Is Good World marketplaces need to be much more dynamically composable by the shopper/player rather than presented as a shopping cart catalog entry. In other words, that Transparency Report needs to be a breadcrumb trail of commerce impact points that the shopper/player actively story-forms through an interactive experience.
To go deeper with this idea, we encourage you to visit the Entrepreneurial Community Ecosystems page where you will find a link to an article, The Yin Yang of eCommerce Engines. Also, if you are interested, we have been working with a flexible, extensible Open Source Content Management System with a radically cool eCommerce framework acc-on that is an ideal candidate for building this kind of story-driven, game-oriented eCommerce platform.
–Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn–
Entry Filed under: Entrepreneurial Community Ecosystems, Inprosumerism, NED - Philanthropic Franchise
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