Network economy and culture

Going along with Brian’s connection that

group: network :: organization : market

and Preece’s mention (citing Steve Jones) that the Web is a market-driven social space where “business dictates and shapes social interaction”, I’d like to draw another comparison. Wellman talks about the pressing need to prioritize communication amidst all of the noise and the important work being done “to establish rules for prioritizing computer-mediated contact, both deductively setting a priori rules and inductively watching which messages a person takes first” (emphasis mine), much like a planned versus unplanned economy.

I’m no economist either, but I appreciate the complex interplay between economics, politics and culture, and I am certain these factors play out in the virtual, just as much as in the physical, world. The thing I’d be interested in further exploring then, is the similarities and differences between online and offline cultures and economic systems. (I’m using ‘economy’ in a loose sense here, to encompass much more than the ‘capitalist / communist dichotomy’). Furthermore, I’d like to probe what implications these similarities and differences would have for knowledge access—for finding knowledge in a networked society.

If the design and evaluation of computer-mediated communication, and by relation of online communities, is truly a Simonian science of the artificial, then aren’t hierarchical levels all the more important (as units of analysis) rather than things which are quickly becoming obsolete as Wellman seems to suggest? Or am I misreading Simon with my limited, 504-based understanding?