Jim, Tim...
The dynamic that both of you have been dancing around, as is the case in almost every other discussion of this type - including the reference article, and indeed, in many discussions that I find myself being seduced into, as well.
The dynamic of which I speak is the largely inconvenient, but much ignored truth that, with rare exceptions due to special circumstances, the best network yields no financial bounty to anyone at all, bar none. That is, except to those who make use of it, of course, and this holds true despite the vesting that numerous parties on both sides of the private-public divide possess in realizing their preferred models succeeding.
It's only when the information flows on such networks are mediated and altered for gain that they begin to assume an imputed form of "value" that otherwise would be as commodified in nature as sand is in its pre-molten state.
As a refresher, see The Paradox of the Best Network (c.2001), by David Isenberg and David Weinberger with comments from Roxane Googin, at:
netparadox.com
FAC
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