What is a Hybrid Economy?
A hybrid economy is any type of local, state, or national economic system that involves a more or less equal focus on two different types of economy. This hybrid or dual economy is a relatively common structure that has been utilized in many different settings over the history of humankind. Some examples of a hybrid economy may include a military-industrial based economy, a university-industry based economy, or hybrid economy based primarily on a mix of business and government. In the best of situations, a hybrid economy will draw on the strengths of each major component while also minimizing the weaknesses inherent in any single approach to an economy. For example, a hybrid economy that rested on a foundation of agrarian and manufacturing elements could achieve a balance that allowed persons living within the economy to enjoy ample fruits, vegetables, meats, and dairy products to consume and invest in. At the same time, this mixed or hybrid economy would also ensuring that other goods
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 w
