Revenue-generating value exchanges are but part of the picture in a value network. The flow of
knowledge value and intangible value is of equal importance. Please note there are no double-headed
or unlabeled arrows in this analysis approach. Unlabeled or double-headed arrows are meaningless.
Diagrammed this way, however, we know exactly who initiates the exchange, what specific value or
product is being conveyed, and who receives it. With this level of detail, we can analyze value
creation from multiple perspectives such as time, goals, resources, results, costs, or value added by
linking the diagram to analysis tables. Note also that the originators and recipients are real people or
groups of people. In the rush to understand the wild and wooly world of e-commerce, people often
confuse the mechanism with the exchange. New technologies are only pipelines for knowledge and
value exchange. The exchange is what is really important.
This example shows a straightforward exchange of goods and services for revenue, knowledge
exchanged for knowledge, and an intangible exchanged for an intangible. Knowledge is the most
interesting currency of all, because knowledge can be exchanged for any of the three! We can
exchange knowledge for money in the form of a knowledge product or service, we can exchange
knowledge for knowledge, and we can exchange knowledge for an intangible. An example of
exchanging knowledge for an intangible would be when Sun Microsystems gave away its Java
technology in hope of generating a web of loyal users, thus exchanging knowledge for loyalty.
Unfortunately for the Java alliance, the dynamics of this were only partially understood, and the
returns were not fully realized.