Communities-business models and system architectures: the blueprint of MP3.com, Napster and Gnutella revisited

Information and communication technology opens up an unprecedented space of design options for the creation of economic value. The business model "community" and the role "community organizer" are determined to become pivotal in the digital economy. We argue that any online business model needs to take communities and community organizing in the design of communication and the system architecture into account. Our discussion is guided by the media model (Schmid, 1997). We characterize the relation between a community and its medium and we analyze the role of communities in business models. We illustrate the means to organize communities with the cases: information services; price mechanisms; and music sector online with MP3.com, Napster and Gnutella. We analyze the interdependence between business model and system architecture and explore the trend towards the business model "community".