Information Technology Reference
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where scope becomes an instantaneous decision,
not a deliberate, incremental process.
The CITI firms
precedented levels of power and control.
While their size may not be easily quantifi-
able in accounting and financial terms their
impact on our everyday lives is profound.
And while many aspects of their activities
and their existence enrich our lives tremen-
dously, it remains that their sole existence
and the lack of market space for alternative
options predicate our lives in unpredictable
ways as well.
have demonstrated their ability to morph
from single company models to markets in
their own right at will and nearly instan-
taneously, all the while passing through
stages of intermediary, infomediary, and
aggregator, to name just a few prominent
e-business and e-commerce positions (e.g.
Amazon as a bookseller and as a business
enabler for a myriad of smaller booksellers
and individuals who want to recycle their
used topics but can't afford the ixed cost
in marketing expenditure for their e-com-
merce presence);
The ease to morph from market forms to
intermediary model to single integrated
company can preempt many an attempt at
innovation and improvement by new en-
trants. The barrier to entry can be raised
indefinitely and to insurmountable heights,
and potentially more effective and effi-
cient solutions can be kept form the public
discretionarily.
can hop from industry to industry and
between industries at will and almost in-
stantaneously (e.g. Google's search engine
activities, yet also the G1 phone, and the
recently reported aspirations to generate
green electricity; Facebook is a platform
for users to produce themselves with other
users but quickly become an essential tool
for job seekers, employers, and recruiters
for various purposes with respect to sourc-
ing and hiring issues);
Finally, the intensity of competition is
raised beyond rivalry. All that counts is to
occupy enough of a market space that in-
cludes the tipping point; such competition
in the early stages before the merit of any
technology is identifiable is highly skewed
and can result in entirely unjustified early
technological choices with uncertain and
unpredictable consequences.
escape definitions and notions that tie them
to a particular industry and thus potentially
avoid the associated regulations and con-
straints (e.g. Craig's List that only recently
and under only under political and ethical
pressure accorded to policing their immor-
ally solicitive personal ads).
the controversy With regards
to strategy and structure
Much is being written and analyzed with regards
to CITI firms' strategic and structural ambitions.
They appear grounded in cooperation or co-
opetition at the least, their structures are open and
accommodative, they are engaging and integrative
with respect to their fellow market participants.
Yet, of less prominent nature is the agenda of their
strategies and structures vis-à-vis the regulator.
In there lies the real value of analysis.
CITI firms spend a disproportionate amount of
energy dedicated to influencing and manipulating
Such radical redefinitions with respect to scale
and scope are worrisome for several reasons:
The all-fixed-cost-zero-variable-cost char-
acteristic of digital production that so eas-
ily results in a near-natural monopoly ar-
gument for single-firm digital industries
dangerously justifies conglomerates of un-
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