Towards fair and transparent online business models

Nikos Manouselis, CEO Agro-Knownikosm@agroknow.gr

inspired by…

Nikos• MSc, MΕng, PhD• >150 publications• 1 like-a-post-doc• 1 (almost) research position• >5 rejected University job

applications• Agro-Know in 2008

An extraordinary company that captures, organizes and adds value to the rich information available in agricultural and biodiversity sciences, in order to

make it universally accessible, useful and meaningful.

http://www.agroknow.gr

advocates of open

• CIARD.net: a global movement dedicated to open agricultural knowledge

• Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN)

FAO’s AGRIS (http://agris.fao.org)

the online world is so cool

so many fantastic services & apps

many disruptive business models

yes, it is cool. it also generates new businesses. like Agro-Know

but who generates this value? and who owns it?

let’s do the math: who generates it

• value: $212 billions–per employee: ~ $21 millions–per user: ~ $150

• so who do you think generates this value?

…and who makes money out of this value?

is this transparent?

is this fair?

does this mean that we should not have online businesses?

should I close Agro-Know?

how can we do fair business from the value that our users generate?

I do not have a reply, yet. I have plenty of questions. And an

example to share.

AGRIS central data processing

AGRIS data providers (>150 active)

FAO AGRIS ecosystem (simplified)

AGRIS search page

who generates the value?

and who takes advantage?

hm. is this transparent to the AGRIS members? and is it fair?

thought #1

1. all AGRIS providers to know that Agro-Know is processing their data at no cost for them

– explicitly asks their permission to use their data in our online product

– all AGRIS providers get some additional free Agro-Know service in return

thought #2

• a micro-payment model in place for each AGRIS provider– we cannot pay cash, yet; but e.g. credits-per-

views can be collected by each provider– new services & features to be offered by Agro-

Know according to the collected credits

wrapping up

• online world: helps us disrupt some monopolies that were based on who owns the information

• lots of new value, generated by all of us, instantly created online

• new types of threat: who owns the information channels now?

take away message

• doing business online is not bad• but the way we make money from other

people’s information should be transparent and fair– …whatever is legal, is not always ethical

my question to you

How can we help make this happen?

thank you!