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Esther Dyson on the Value of Attention
Christian Ahlert writes "OpenBusiness talked to Esther Dyson about how business models are adapting to an internet environment that champions openness. Esther's upcoming PC Forum focuses on how users are transforming the internet and placing new demands on businesses. From Open Source to Open Content, new forms of organization, production and distribution are emerging. But how can these ventures produce a revenue and sustain themselves? For how long can we give content away for free?"
Giving things away for free, in my experience, typically pays you back pretty quickly. And in more ways than just adding points to the great Karma tally in the sky.
If you make an open source project that gets any sort of attention, you typically find yourself bombarded with job offers and requests for consulting work, which can easily turn into a consulting company, etc, etc.
Just becuase you give away something for free doesn't mean people want to use it for free, they often will pay a good fee for support, customization, etc.
Big ones, small ones, some as big as yer 'ead!
Give 'em a twist, a flick o' the wrist...
But not the content that's being given away... That content brings in the users/viewers. The content that makes the money is the meta-content. It's the communities that develop and the loyalties that are created around the free content which bring value to the advertising and site-themed t-shirts and coffee mugs. Take slashdot, for instance.. the real value of slashdot is more in the comments and the community that develops here for each new story than it is in the story itself - at least for those of you reading this comment right now. We could find out the news from tons of places - but the real reason to come here is either habit or for the entertainment found in reading and posting comments. People are valuable and we're seeing a relfection of that happen on the web.
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
For how long can we give content away for free?
I hate this question. You might as well ask "For how long can we afford to have sex without charging each other?" or "For how long can we make idle chit chat with random strangers without getting their billing information first?"
Or how about "How long can the sun shine without protection of its intellectual property?"
I'm as capitalistic as the next guy, but capitalism is a specific mechanism to resolve a certain specific class of problems in an efficient manner. It is not some universal mandate, and there's no reason to suspect that it imposes any sorts of limits on conduct that isn't covered by the model.
--MarkusQ
P.S. Please respond with your credit card numbers so I can bill you for spouting off. I've gotta eat, you know.
Two years before ICANN was created word got to me that "If you guys don't straighten out this DNS mess the CIA is gonna send Ester in to fix this".
Darling Estie never kept any appointment with me and apparantly doesn't read email she responds to. She spammed me for two years before I blacklisted her domain.
I can't recall being more disappoined in any human I ever wanted to meet. Utterly vacuous. Whatever she says, do the opposite which you probably thought was the right thing to do in the first place.
Usenet has been providing free answers for a quarter century. What's she up to now? Whatever it is, I promise you she's "invested" in it.
Anon for a reason. Sorry. I've read Barris' book.
thinks outsourcing is good for America.
Sometimes, you have loony people.
Sometimes, you have intelligent people.
Sometimes, and far worse, you have intelligent people who can't understand consequences of loony ideas but are very good at pushing out enough frak that noone understands they're really loony people.
Sadly, Dyson's in the third category.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --