[ox-en] Products replacing services
- From: Stefan Merten <smerten oekonux.de>
- Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 23:25:07 +0100
Hi list!
I'm just reading a quite interesting book on Software Engineering
(Albert Endres, Dieter Rombach * A Handbook of Software and Systems
Engineering). Unfortunately the big field of Free Software development
is not covered explicitly but otherwise the book is really good.
I found a very interesting section in it which is directly applicable
to Oekonux theory building. In fact it expresses a point I'm having in
mind for a long time now but never formulated it as clear as it is
done here.
The core sentence called Baumol's law is "Products replace services
through productivity gains". Some excerpts from the section (p.
199f.).
Also in the software field, a service may easily be turned into a
product. It is typical for the industry that products evolve in a
direction that reduces the support service needed.
In the Free Software field the striking example of this is how
installing a GNU/Linux system has changed. Ten years ago it needed an
expert to install only a little fraction of the software which today
is installed automatically. The know how-has shifted from people's
head into a product making the type of service needed badly in the
beginning simply obsolete today.
Speaking in terms of Selbstentfaltung instead of productivity this
means that the product extends Selbstentfaltung because there is no
one you need to ask for a service any longer.
The theory for that phenomenon given is even more interesting for
Oekonux:
Baumol's principle reflect the fact that productivity gains can
normally not be achieved for services. ... Because productivity in
the service jobs tends to lag behind productivity in manufacturing,
the cost of services ends up rising constantly over time. ...
The software field - or more general: all fields where automation is
possible - are now subject to this. More or less this is the essence
why automation takes place at all.
What is new in the software field compared to other fields is, that a
large range of activities - if not all - can be subject to automation.
Or put differently: All software services can be and will be replaced
by software products over time. This is totally different from say
personal services like a barber.
This has some consequences: The first consequence applies to the Free
Software business models which IMHO mainly rely on the provision of
services for Free Software products. Any such service provider must be
highly flexible or he/she will be out of business quickly. This
applies even more if the Free Software business acts in a Free
Software manner giving back its learnings to the community. Sooner or
later the lessons learned are part of a product replacing the service
provider.
The second consequence applies to the level of work needed for a fixed
standard of living. If the service part is replaced by Free products
the work needed for a fixed standard of living drops.
But the most interesting consequence IMHO is that here is a dynamic in
the productive forces which seems to be unlimited. May be this is
another unique property of the information society.
Mit Freien Grüßen
Stefan
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http://www.oekonux.org/