Comments on: Consumer Evangelism http://blog.andrewparker.net/2006/12/13/consumer-evangelism/ Tech, Entrepreneurship, and Venture Capital in New York City Mon, 22 Dec 2008 02:40:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Andrew Parker http://blog.andrewparker.net/2006/12/13/consumer-evangelism/comment-page-1/#comment-29223 Andrew Parker Thu, 14 Dec 2006 15:17:25 +0000 http://blog.andrewparker.net/2006/12/13/consumer-evangelism/#comment-29223 That cheesy movie, Pay It Forward, assumed that random acts of kindness would be paid forward with completely unreleated acts of kindness. However, in the web, that's not the case. Acts of kindness are paid forward, but all the acts revolve around a single thread of technology (in this case, Wordpress). Greasemonkey is another great example. When Greasemonkey released, users didn't feel compelled to go volenteer at their local hospital; they felt compelled to write awesome, free Greasemonkey scripts for all to enjoy. Makes perfect sense too. Very intuitive behavior. That cheesy movie, Pay It Forward, assumed that random acts of kindness would be paid forward with completely unreleated acts of kindness. However, in the web, that’s not the case. Acts of kindness are paid forward, but all the acts revolve around a single thread of technology (in this case, Wordpress).

Greasemonkey is another great example. When Greasemonkey released, users didn’t feel compelled to go volenteer at their local hospital; they felt compelled to write awesome, free Greasemonkey scripts for all to enjoy.

Makes perfect sense too. Very intuitive behavior.

]]> By: Tara Hunt http://blog.andrewparker.net/2006/12/13/consumer-evangelism/comment-page-1/#comment-28773 Tara Hunt Thu, 14 Dec 2006 04:42:48 +0000 http://blog.andrewparker.net/2006/12/13/consumer-evangelism/#comment-28773 Absolutely. It's the growing gift economy that Austin Hill talks about...pretty amazing what happens. One company gives a great product into the wild...opens up the code so that people can extend it...more and more people add to the product, inspiring more people to go out and give other things that they can, like Adam, who gives to me, then I feel even more giving than usual and the chain of events go on. I mean, it sounds so utopic hippie 2.0, but geez, it feels good to 'pay it forward' (a term that Adam used when he emailed me). It just seems to keep going. Absolutely. It’s the growing gift economy that Austin Hill talks about…pretty amazing what happens. One company gives a great product into the wild…opens up the code so that people can extend it…more and more people add to the product, inspiring more people to go out and give other things that they can, like Adam, who gives to me, then I feel even more giving than usual and the chain of events go on.

I mean, it sounds so utopic hippie 2.0, but geez, it feels good to ‘pay it forward’ (a term that Adam used when he emailed me). It just seems to keep going.

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