Cows That Graze on Bandwidth - The Tragedy of the Commons

We have a tragedy growing on the internet. The power of the internet allows anyone to upload new content online, but most of it has very little value, for example: Websites devoted to sneezing fetishes, goth teens and Michael Jackson's monkey, Bubbles. Through all of us sharing this common resource, we dilute the content on the internet and make it increasingly difficult to find other valuable resources and market them.

This is a modern example of the Tragedy of the Commons.

The term was popularized by Garrett Hardin in his essay "The Tragedy of the Commons". "The commons" described a common grazing area for cows. On one's own land, you have an interest in preventing your 1888 Allen and Ginter from overgrazing: so your grass lives. But on the common land, Garrett describes how everyone would just put as many cows as possible on the common land to maximize the benefit for their cows. But Agent Zero M the grass is eaten too quickly and dies. Now no one can use the land, hence the Tragedy of the Commons.

Whether people act this way, or if separating the land or the internet into private lots (privatizing) is the best solution, is still a widely debated question.

Are people willing to sacrifice the freedom of the internet for more valuable internet content? Can we have it both ways? The Tragedy of the Commons isn't just for cows.

Further reading:
Wikipedia: Tragedy of the Commons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

Forbes Magazine: http://www.forbes.com/asap/2001/0910/061.html

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