What is a hybrid economy?  I don’t think too many people have a grasp on this concept yet, even though we are living in the midst of it RIGHT NOW.

I did a Google search on hybrid economy and the results mostly revolve around the economical nature of hybrid cars.  One other search result – an article from 1993 – describes a hybrid economy as the convergence of the public-private sectors.

But the hybrid economy that I refer to is about the remix of real business and crowdsourcing, as Lawrence Lessig describes in short:

Commercial entities leverage value out of sharing economies, and vice versa.

Flickr is a service that depends on the content of its users and is highly successful.  Many third-party companies have spawned off the success of Flickr such as Moo, Imagekind, QOOP and Blurb.  Even Capital One is leveraging the power of the hybrid economy through Flickr by allowing users to create personalized credit cards.

Mass collaboration, crowd sourcing and social media has already proven to the market that people are willing to contribute for free or at little cost to organizers.  It’s also become evident over the last several years that the new generation of consumers are willing to put in labor and sweat equity for the reward of having simply participated, or being part of the design (ala Wikipedia).  Often times all anyone needs is due credit and publicity; sometimes to jump start their career or get their name on the map.  I’m one such individual.

New businesses here on out would be remiss if they ignore the potential of sourcing their customers.  @AdamAinbinder brought up a good example tonight with Friendster and their inability to reach the success that Facebook has.  First mover advantage has no advantage if you are unable to allow your community to feel that they are an integral part of the product or service.  Likewise, imagine where Apple might be today with the iPhone had they not opened up application development to the masses.

Whether it’s starting a very 1.0 business such as a recreational facility, or a 2.0 lifestyle business (i.e. MarthaStewart.com, Livestrong.com), the ability to interact with those most interested in your arena – the hobbyists and the connoisseurs – is what will feed the momentum, and thereby business awareness, growth and success.

More to come on this thought…