2005 was the year when two of the largest
consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-commerce sites originated. According to class
lecture, Craigslist and eBay were both founded in the same year, 2005, by two
different innovators. Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, originally just
wanted to send out an e-mail newsletter to friends about local events that
eventually expanded into a list of “online classifieds.” C2C e-commerce
includes: peer-to-peer sharing, cottage industry, and centralized online-seller
websites. Today websites such as Etsy, (www.etsy.com), allow for users of the
site, which are usually designers and artists, to exchange and sell their
creations. Etsy is considered a cottage industry web site, meaning it is run by
an individual that uses it as a secondary source of income. As Professor Mahood
stated in class, it is like an online garage sale. That is exactly what Etsy is
and it has allowed for artists, musicians, and designers of many trades to get
their work out to a greater public that otherwise would have been much more
difficult without the use of the world wide web.
In
an article titled, “Wikinomics and its discontents: a critical analysis of Web
2.0 business manifestos,” the authors state that “both the active involvement of the people-formerly-known-as-customers
and the formation of communities are celebrated as the best thing since the
establishment of worker’s comp and a woman’s right to vote – the long awaited
emancipation of the digital citizen who wants to create their own products and
be in charge of their own distribution.” I have to agree completely that the
Internet offers a platform for each individual to express himself or herself
freely and they are even able to make a profit off of that freedom. What more
could you ask for? I have friends in Austin and a friend in California who call
me up, or should I say text me, and let me know they’ve posted something new
and that I need to check it out and spread the word. One is a jewelry designer
and the other a pottery artist. It doesn’t satisfy me more than to see one of
my very creative friends actually selling something to someone somewhere out
there in the world! Both friends are full time students, with jobs, but on the
side their passion is art and with Etsy they are able to share their creations
with the world- just one of the many positives that the Internet has to offer
amongst many negatives that tends to steal the spotlight. I encourage everyone
to check out Etsy and other online communities where you can buy original things
instead of hitting up a big box store. I only hope this form of e-commerce
remains pertinent in the future of our online society.
