The “information wants to be free” discussion blew up again at the end of June, with the usual polar positions being taken as if this was a winner-take-all fight. It always seem as if the debate is framed by the extremes with the protagonists talking past each other, not at each other.
The New York Times actually has a pretty balanced overview that you can read here. Bill Gurley and Bijan Sabet have also written good posts.
The coiner of “information wants to be free”, Stuart Brand, added a little something to that sentence, he also said that “information wants to be expensive”. Why did the last bit not get the traction of the first?
Brand was saying that there will always be tension between these positions and that businesses will forever be maneuvering in this territory, adjusting their business models appropriately.
Apropos to this brouhaha Chris Anderson is currently releasing the audiobook version of the book Free — free for the unabridged version and $7.49 for the abridged version! Why? Because it takes 6 hours to listen to the full version and only 3 hours to listen to the abridged version which contains “the most important and engaging chapters and points, cutting three hours from the length without losing key concepts. Time is money!”
That is precisely the kind of model that “freetards” like myself are endorsing. Make it easy for the people who want to give you money to do so, first and foremost by creating an offer that is immediately understood to be better than free for a sufficient % of your audience (via Corey Doctorow and Kevin Kelley).
It shouldn’t really be that hard to understand that the free business model simply means—
Give away something that used to cost money. Make money in a different way as a result of the disruption. Have happier customers and higher profits.
And that’s the money quote! :-)
Recent Comments