Business books tend to fall towards the bottom of the “to read list because they’re typically dry and common sensical to the point I ask why, oh why, did I buy this book? However, I just finished reading The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations
Brafman and Beckstrom provide a great overview of the history of digital piracy and how it works into this model. Studios and networks function like spiders, while pirates and hackers come together and collectively act like starfish. Corporate entities tend to have a relatively rigid structure with layers of approval and multi-step processes to usher new products through R&D before the public gets to see them. Leadership is top down featuring upper management who keeps the worker bees in line. The piracy community, on the otherhand, doesn’t have an outspoken leader to target. Members of the web community (frequently anonymously) work together to launch better and better programs to keep P2P networks going despite the full on war against piracy by the studios and networks. Every time one site gets shut down two more spring up like mushrooms after the rain…or like a starfish that was cut in half. (If you’re not a big piracy nut, the authors also cover Al-Qaeda, Ebay, and manufacturing examples that are equally demonstrative of the principles and rules that they discuss.)
Their generalizations about starfish clearly apply to the very collaborative web community:
- When attacked, a decentralized organization tends to become even more open and decentralized (p. 21)
- An open system doesn’t have central intelligence, their intelligence is spread throughout the system (p.39-40)
- Open systems can easily mutate (p. 40)
- The decentralized organization sneaks up on you (p.41)
- As industries become decentralized, overall profits decrease (p. 45)
Doesn’t piracy make for a delicious example of decentralized organizations? The music industry was the first in entertainment to face off against the amorphous starfish colony that commandeered digital distribution via sites like Napster and Kazaa. CD sales plumetted and even iTunes won’t save the record system from crumbling because artists are increasingly turning self-promotion and alternative partnerships to maximize their own cut of profits (For example, Radiohead is letting fans price their new release for themselves, and are finding fans are voluntarily paying typical retail prices. And Madonna signed a $120 Million, 10 year deal with LiveNation that covers album releases, merchandising, her tours, kicking longterm label Warner Music to the curb). Unsigned bands are able to make it into top 10 singles lists by generating a huge online following and taking advantage of services like DiscRevolt that don’t require much money up front from the artist. The recording companies just can’t compete with the way the Internet has opened distribution to all for low costs.
Despite the writing on the wall, film and TV leadership didn’t take a proactive role in shaping internet distribution early on. They now fight the tidal wave of churning internet offerings that make it easy to produce and distribute, or pirate instead of pay for content. Sites like Metacafe and revver are paying content producers for videos that go viral to encourage the quality filmmaker to return again and again. Great videos like When Shift Happens 2.0 are going viral because they resonate with viewers who forward and forward the link on.
Web users upload copyrighted content to all sorts of websites that host video, so that all users can easily access what is believed to be a public good whether it’s a conventionally available TV program or movie or a hard to find classic that has yet to make it to DVD or has never been released in this country. The amorphous web community is tearing apart the standard model in order to bring products and services (that consumers are tired of waiting for in a format they want) to the people. And the networks and studios are freaking out because the writing is on the wall, they are set to experience the same innard wrenching the music industry is struggling with. Shutting down a site like Tv-Links.co.uk just sends users to more far flung sites to find the content they want. The film and television industries are destined for the same misery because like the music industry, they want to fight the change and solidly tether, rather than harness the energy reshaping distribution to build a better business model.
My suggestion: Rather than try to prosecute all the leaders of this tumultuous change, labels; studios and networks should be hiring them to take the charge and bring consumers the content how and when they want it (because they get consumers better than the people enmeshed in a dying entertainment business model who can’t see the trees for the forest). Hire strong digital leadership and trust them to develop and turn out a platform or partnerships without lots of meddling by senior brass.
Stepping off my soapbox now.
