Open Business Models - Final Research Report

Esta é a publicação em inglês do resultado da pesquisa sobre os chamados "negócios abertos" ou Open Business Models. A versão original em português pode também ser encontrada aqui no Overmundo.

This is a brief summary of the results of the researches carried out by the project Open
Business Models – Latin America, coordinated by the Center for Technology and Society of the
Law School of Fundação Getúlio Vargas in partnership with Overmundo, during the period of
March 2006 – July 2007.
The development of the project took place in Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico and
Nigeria and has generated great interest and incentives for other researchers, government members,
the third sector and the private sector.
Among the main studies in the scope of the project, we should highlight the field research on
tecnobrega scene in Belém do Pará, which mapped the emergence of new business models in a
periphery of Brazil. Besides that, it is worth to mention Colombia's and Argentina's field researches,
demonstrating the emergence of the music markets in those countries based on the use of digital
technology and different practices regarding the idea of intellectual property. Another highlight is
the findings regarding Nigeria and its thriving movie industry. It is also important to mention the
mapping of open business cases in Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Brazil, as well as the open
business guide developed and cases collected by the British team of the Open Business project. The
main findings of each of the objectives above will be detailed throughout this report.
We believe that these findings will contribute to the development of different perspective
regarding cultural production in developing countries, based on a more critical view, and taking into
account the challenges faced by the mainstream cultural industry.
This work has only been possible thanks to the support of the International Development
Research Centre (IDRC), a Canadian Crown corporation that works in collaboration with
researchers from developing countries.
INTRODUCTION
Brazil and other developing countries have currently been under substantial changes
regarding the processes by which culture and information are created. In the past few years, most of
the traditional media and cultural industries have been facing great challenges to adapt its business
models to a new reality – completely changed by the impact of digital communication technologies.
These challenges are faced prominently, for instance, by the music industry, the press, the
publishing industry and the movie industry.
In developing countries, the crisis becomes even more complex, because of economic
factors. The majority of people don't have purchasing power to purchase “official� cultural goods.
As a result, high prices and inflexible business models make the majority of the population
estranged from the possibility of participating in the “official� generation of the cultural dialogue.
At the same time, and in many cases as a reaction to this situation, new production and
business models have been emerging as alternatives. These are efforts taking place from the
bottom-up, being both self-sustainable and autonomous. In other words, with the emergence of
digital technology and the Internet, in many places and regions in developing countries (especially
in the “peripheries�), technology ended up arriving earlier than the business models based on the
idea of intellectual property. Such a de facto situation propitiated the emergence of cultural
industries that were not driven by intellectual property incentives. In these cultural businesses, the
idea of “sharing� and of free dissemination of the content is intrinsic to the social circumstances
taking place in these peripheries.
Accordingly, we use the name “open business� to qualify these new models in Latin
America, taking place in the peripheries of various countries. These local peripheries are
appropriating technological tools to create their own networks for the production, distribution and
consumption of culture. These emerging peripheral networks are taking place in spite of any
intellectual property incentives. Such situation leads to a tension between legality and illegality as
well as between formality and informality. Our view is that these “open business� models help to discuss and understand the impact of technology in the peripheries, contributing to bring new
perspectives for these challenges.
An illustrative video material about the tecnobrega and the Nigerian film industry scenarios
can be found in the documentary called “Good Copy, Bad Copy�, by Andreas Johnsen, Ralf
Christensen and Henrik Moltke.