All posts by krijnturkenburg

Dream or Donate

Making dreams come true

The Dutch initiative Dream or Donate is an online platform that allows individuals to realize their dreams or ideas by crowdfunding. It brings together two groups of people; namely the dreamers who want to share an idea and the donors who can give money for its realization.[1] In that sense, Dream or Donate can be considered as a two-sided network. It this case, one group of users is entirely subsidized whereas the other group of users can be considered the ‘money side’. [2] The difference here with two-sided networks as described by Eisenmann, Parker, and Van Alstyne (2006) is that there is no tangible advantage for the donors to attract large groups of dreamers. It might be that donors experience glory from their donations, since the dreamers will get a notification of their donation. It works as follows: Continue reading Dream or Donate

Peerby – Get to know your neighbors!

Imagine this. You are hosting a dinner party for all your friends and you have decided to cook the meal yourself. Since you have invited many people, you need the appropriate cooking gear to make this party a success. However, in case you are a student like me, it is not very likely that you own a cooking pan large enough to cook tomato soup for 20 people. The stores are closed, your parents are out of town, and none of your friends own a pan of the dimensions your feast requires. offers a solution for people with exactly these kinds of problems. They established an alternative to the prevailing consumption patterns in which people use goods after which it is stored or thrown away by developing a platform on which people can request to borrow things from their neighbors. In this way Peerby hopes to realize objectives such as “connecting people with each other and encouraging collaborative consumption.” [i] In essence, collaborative consumption allows individuals to become active members of society and increase their social network.[ii] Peerby does this by offering a platform that introduces a new value-creating system, allowing customers to govern the flow of goods in their own consumption context. [iii]

A question remaining is why people are committed to the online community that Peerby creates. Previous literature on organizational commitment has shown that people can develop a connection to an online community that is based on obligation, affect, and/or need. Continue reading Peerby

8tracks: Music to my Ears

“Music is all around us, al you have to do is listen” [1].

This quote from the movie August Rush pretty much sums up the music industry nowadays. The media through which we can listen to our favorite songs and newly released albums are ubiquitous. There’s the radio, television music channels, and digital services such as Spotify, iTunes store, and Youtube channels. In case these options do not satisfy the music listener there is always the cheaper option to download it, which happens to be illegal.

However, many services in the music industry seem to suffer from declining profitability. People do not listen to the radio anymore and even iTunes is experiencing falling sales because people prefer streaming services over ownership [2]. Pirate bay has been banned. This means that people need to find other sources for satisfying their hunger for (new) music.

Luckily, there is 8tracks. This online music platform is growing rapidly since David Porter launched it in 2008 [3]. It was featured as one of the best websites in 2011 by TIME [4] and is ranked number 32 globally in StartupRanking based on internal and external links, estimated audience factors and mentioning in social media [5]. The graph below gives an indication of the speed with which 8track’s social influence is spreading.

Screen Shot 2014-05-05 at 22.17.54


What is it?

Continue reading 8tracks: Music to my Ears