Lancaster University, vfridge
and aQtive
alan@hcibook.com
www.hcibook.com/alan/
Keynote at SAICSIT'2001 - South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists Annual Conference. Pretoria, 25-28 September 2001.
download extended abstract (PDF, 85K)
and OHPs as a single PDF (1.5Mb)
or as Powerpoint in 4 parts: intro.ppt (141K), mauro.ppt
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Full reference:
A. Dix (2001). Cyber-economies and the Real World.
SAICSIT'2001 - South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists Annual Conference. Pretoria, 25-28 September 2001. Unisa Press, Pretoria. pp. xi-xiii
http://www.hcibook.com/alan/papers/SAICSIT2001/
Pure cyber-economies of information goods traded within virtual space have their own dynamics similar in some ways to physical goods, but in other ways more fundamental as the products of cyber-space may transform the space itself. However, the most radical effect of e-commerce for ordinary consumers may be its transformation of the real world of physical goods in real shops. A theoretical view of information society and the informational role of money stretching from 40,000BC to the present day backs up this analysis.
The talk will be based around a 16th-century Venetian Monk, Mrs Goggins at the electronic village shop and a Birmingham prostitute. Three real and virtual people who have shaped my vision of what will be, what may be, and what might be if we make it so.
keywords: e-commerce, internet, cyberspace, money as information, social impact of technology, market ecology