Pirates, Pioneers, Innovators and Imitators

Abstract

Technology opens up new opportunities for good and for bad. At the beginning of a lifecycle only freaks are interested, nobody cares. Later pirates commercialize, make money, societal impacts grow, some big companies cry foul. Rules, laws, dominant designs and standards set in, they provide predictability, the big money can move in, transaction costs go down; technology matures, until a new wave of technology starts the game again.