9) The product or service should be sufficiently distinctive to be able to take advantage of viral marketing.

The stigmergic approach to dealing with volatile data is itself of novel interest. Together with the concept of a people space, it will provide a low cost environment for people trying to find others who have a special interest in a particular narrow area of knowledge. Such a system has many possible applications and will be of interest to many people, even outside of the field of oncology. This novelty is sufficient to spread knowledge about the existence of the project.

There are many Internet discussion forums and news groups devoted to the subject of cancer. Via these communities, any new approach to helping cancer patients is rapidly propagated throughout the Internet. From these Internet communities, information is passed on to people who are not connected to the Internet. It is likely to be propagated to most places where the treatment of cancer is discussed: hospitals, clinics, surgeries and even social events.

There are numerous specialist journals dealing with oncology. There are many conferences and seminars where information relating to various forms of treatment are discussed by specialists. There is a two way exchange of information between these off line centres of information and the Internet communities: a valuable positive feedback loop that can accelerate the spread of information.

There is every reason to expect that should this stigmergic people space start to work, word will spread quickly. This would cost nothing and will be far more effective than any expensive advertising or marketing campaign.

The proviso is, of course, that the system can operate effectively. However, as yet, there is is no low cost system that provides cancer patients with up to date information on cancer treatment trials, particularly with the rarer forms of cancer. This suggests that there is every chance that the system will take off as expected.

10) The critical mass must be easily adjustable

and

11) The essential infrastructure required must be such as to entail very low overhead costs.

These two rules are grouped together because they are inextricably linked. The lower limit to which the critical mass can be shrunk is dependent upon the lowest the overheads can be reduced to without losing efficiency.

As discussed above, by making use of an organic, self organising system that can grow from a small base, there isn't a need for large amounts of investment capital. This means this cancer trial treatment business doesn't have to carry the costs of a high profile, cosmetic management structure. The employee base can be kept small and efficient: greatly reducing the burden of overheads.

The fundamental structure of a people space is a server and a low cost database that simply hold lists. The functional components are client side software that, once designed, involve no running costs. At any time, the business can be quickly reduced back to a basic, low cost system without affecting the quality of the service.

Additional overheads, over and above the basic system, would be incurred only to provide customer liaison and further system development. These overheads can be scaled up or down according to actual business activity and in line with current cash flows.

12) The business should have a lower critical mass than competitors.

By utilising a low cost, low overhead, self organising system that relies upon organic growth and word of mouth advertising, there is very little leeway for competitive businesses to have a lower critical mass.

Competitors using large amounts investment capital will be handicapped with an inherently larger critical mass.

13) There should be no substantial development or pioneering costs.

The basic simplicity of the proposed system, and the fact that much of the essential software has already been prototyped, will ensure initial costs will be orders of magnitude smaller than any conventional approach to the problems aimed to be solved.

The ability to grow organically, starting from a small base, will remove the need for expensive development costs. The pioneering will automatically occur as part the self organising process as the system evolves its own path towards efficient operation. Such evolutionary development is financed, controlled and limited by the extent of the inward revenue – so, there is no need for this to be funded out of capital.

14) The business environment must be such as to allow switches in direction without too much disruption.

The modular nature of a people space provides ample opportunity for switching into different subject areas should any become too competitive or too crowded. For example, the areas dealing with the commonest forms of cancer might be crowded out with different alternatives offered by big businesses that have large marketing budgets.

However, the limitations imposed by the need to achieve critical mass will prevent these companies using mass marketing techniques in the smaller areas of the less common forms of cancer, or, with the more specialist cancer treatment trials.

A low cost, highly adaptable system can pick and choose in the niche areas and fear no competition from the the larger companies who will be handicapped by a their higher critical mass.

15) The business environment should offer ample scope for evolutionary growth and expansion.

Again, the modular nature of a people space is highly conducive to organic growth. Starting with perhaps a few niche categories of types of cancer, or, specialist trials, more can be added, one by one, as different areas of interest open up. The very fact that categories are not specifically chosen in advance allows such areas of interest to manifest randomly.

16) There must be a variety of different kinds of funding possibilities available.

A people space that covers the various needs of so many people and so many different businesses and organisation involved in the treatment of cancer provides a wealth of different sources of funding.

The modular structure and the organic growth allows areas of interest to manifest anywhere at any time. These can be initiated and sponsored by small amounts of funding so that any interested party can promote and develop the area that is of particular interest to them.

If drug companies need patients for a particular type of trial they can promote the appropriate categories. Similarly with trials clinics. Physicians and consultants may want to promote categories that concentrate information and patients around their particular area of specialty. Even patients, their relatives and friends will have strong motivations for promoting niche pockets of interest.

There are ample opportunities for government funding and grants. Charities also will have an interest in this project as it can help them to help cancer sufferers.

Even from outside of the cancer treatment area there will be many opportunities for funding because the basic idea of a stigmergic people space with client side input and control has a wealth of different applications.

The equivalent of funding will also be readily available from university students who might decide that this area of technology would make a suitable subject for a thesis. Such student interest and participation can provide valuable contributions to system development.