Virtual Stuff

The virtual network of Townsville’s Free Stuff is related to stuff as it is all about stuff.  It is the giving away of free stuff.  Initially, I thought that Townsville’s Free Stuff would not be a part of the global commodity/financial market.  But knowing that commodities are becoming more disposable and more readily available due commodities becoming more financially affordable, then Townsville’s Free Stuff is a part of the global commodity/financial market. As the Economist (2012) explains the various industrial revolutions affect not only how things are made, but where they are made. Factories, in the past, move to low-wage countries to curb labour costs (The Economist, 2012). Costs of commodities were also affected the world’s economy experiencing  enormous  cyclical variation  in  economic  activity during the past 50 years: “the  unparalleled  growth of the long boom lasting from the early 1950s to the mid-1970s being followed by periods of rapid growth interspersed with recession, stagnation and, often, unanticipated  crises” (Dicken, 2007, 437). Over these times, commodities have become more affordable.  Townsville’s Free Stuff allows people to give away stuff to those who may need or want those items, and may or may not being able to afford the items, allowing the giver to make room within their household for the possible upgrade of the commodity.

While the network is not a multinational corporation and caters just for locally focused network, the network of Townsville Free Stuff is a sub-network of a much bigger multinational network corporation of Facebook.  The local network is run by a local private administrator, however Facebook is a publically traded company on NASDAQ (The Economist, 2012 b).  As a result, there is advertising on the outskirts of the page in order gain money to help run the company and pay shareholders their dividends.  This goes against the rules, as members of this page are not to advertise for profit.

One can collect or give away stuff on the network.  Stuff can be virtual or real.  Virtual stuff can be through the creation of other networks or the giving of legal advice.  Stuff can be real and can range from clothing, kitchenware and household items, which linked very much to real life commodities that members can go and collect.

Dickens, P. (2007). Global Shift: Mapping the changing contours of the world’s economy London: Sage Publications

 

The Economist (2012). ManufacturingThe third industrial revolution: The digitisation of manufacturing will transform the way goods are made-and change the politics of jobs too

 

The Economist (2012). That Sinking Feeling; Facebook’s Flotation