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Why Free Changes Everything

I've been blogging, and networking, and using every means possible to generate revenue online.  I've also participated deeply within the open source community.  I started browsing the Internet in 1994, so I've been using the Internet for 18 years.  Through all of these experiences, there's one thing that is consistent. People love free stuff and the Internet is an infinite supply of free stuff.

The combination of computers and the Internet drive the price of every product they touch to $0 (free).  This observation is at the heart of the problems with the music, newspaper, magazine, and publishing industries.  Before computers and highly capable software were so easily obtainable, each of these industries competed in a scarce economy. Not everyone could publish a book, make a CD, or produce news. Now everything online exists in an abundant economy.  It's a very challenging problem to have, but that's not the dilemma I'm most concerned with.

When consumers get a taste for "free" a few things happen:

• The first thing that happens is that quality is no longer a threshold. We will accept any free version over one we have to pay for.  Ever watched a recently released movie recorded with a camcoder?
• Logging onto the Internet or turning on a computer is a trigger which immediately makes us assume everything should be free.
• Free becomes a habit. Once you can download Open Office or GIMP, then we get into the habit of expecting everything else to be free too.

The Paradox of Free


The dilemma of free is that when no one wants to pay for anything, then the only alternative left is advertising. And boy do we love advertising, am I right? So from open source advocates to independent authors or movie makers, we're all struggling to produce a good product. Since we're not Seth Godin or Mozilla, then we start pricing everything for free. When we try to move up the value chain and charge for our products we get little or no support. I've been sharing Amazon Associate links for 8 years. I've gotten only 16 click throughs, and no sales. I've got Google Adsense running on half a dozen websites, and I'm lucky if I meet the minimum once a quarter.

We easyily drop money on the stupidest of things offline, on vacation, at the fair, or at a Disney on Ice show. However, when we fire up the Internet, we close our wallets and expect everything for free. Going out drinking with your peeps on Friday after a long week of work, we will spend $20, $50, or maybe even a $100. When we conduct these transactions, we rarely thing twice. What is so different about online commerce?

Every company, every project, every artist(author) needs money to survive. Yet, we commonly entertain ourselves with their products for free. How are they supposed to find the money they so desparately need to continue producing entertaining or useful products, if no one wants to buy their products? Don't want to buy, then what about donations? Nope, we rarely do that either. When was the last time you made a donation to an open source project while using their products all the time?

Crying in my Coffee


As we are in the holiday spirit, I'd like to make one wish. If you find something on the Internet for free, and it entertains you, or makes you more productive, then find a way to compensate the producers of said product. Here are a few suggestions:

• If they have products for sales and you've enjoyed their work, please make a purchase. If you already got it for free, then buy it and give it as a gift to a friend.
• If they accept donations, then make a donation. Come on, if you're using software from an open source project, cough up a little money to show your appreciation.
• If they only have advertising on their sites, then by all means click on their ads. I suggest this a lot and most people will say that's cheating.

How Advertising Works


Here is another example of the paradox between offline and online behaviour. When you buy a magazine or newspaper, there are a lot of advertisements. Sometimes there are products in those advertisements, that  you may never buy, ever. Yet the publisher collects their payment for putting that ad in front of you. Do you feel guilty or like your cheating those advertisers for not looking at their ads? Of course you don't.

Yet, when you see ads on a website that is providing something valuable, you don't click on them. If that is the ONLY way for the website owner to get paid, why don't we want to show our appreciation for the effort of making something valuable available for "free?"
Still leave a bad taste in your mouth?


The only option

We vote with our money. When we pay for something we say,"I want things like this." If we never vote for the products we enjoy by buying them, then we are subconciously saying I want to see more advertising. We are still in the infancy of the Internet, so it's hard to predict if a different model will emerge. Unfortunately the only option other than advertising is opening our pocketbooks and exchanging money for value. Let's make the Internet the global marketplace it has the potential to become.

Best perk of transmedia research? Playing collaborative games with children, playing ARGs, & entertaining yourself(watching movies, trying new experiences, going to remote islands). What a life!

What I've been playing lately:

• Animal Jam
• Monkey Quest
• Left 4 Dead
• Call of Duty
• Survival Code

Video from Power to the Pixel 2011

In this presentation Lance suggests that we're asking the wrong questions when we think about building storyworlds. Specifically, he wonders about these questions:

• How can funding opportunities evolve to support R&D?
• What is it about an experience that stays with someone?
• How can we develop a language to tell stories that are 21st century ready?
• How can we design with instead of for?
• How can storytelling be used to empower creativity in others?
• What does it take to co-create?
• How can we document the process of making work and share it efficiently?
• If we don't take digital literacy as storytellers seriously, who will?

Pay attention! How many are based on computers?

The Top 20 Technologies for the World Ahead:

1. Computer Technology
2. Ubiquitous Computing
3. Human Language Interface for Computers
4. Machine Vision
5. Robot Technology
6. Telecommunications Revolution
7. Fullerene Chemistry
8. Multi-Level Coding System in DNA
9. Biotech Analysis Instrumentation
10. Human Biogenetic-Chemical Computer Model
11. Treatment of Hereditary Disease
12. Control of Bio-Metabolic Disorders
13. Blood and Tissue Matching Drugs
14. Tissue Engineering
15. Neurotechnology
16. Nueropharmacology
17. Cellulose-to-Glucose Process
18. Nanotechnology
19. Chaos Theory and Complexity Models
20. Fuel Cells to Allow Deep Sea Habitation

Click on the fractal and see it come to life...

Official Google Blog: Say yes to CS during CSEdWeek: Last Sunday marks the start of the third annual Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek), taking place in the U.S. from December 4-10. CSEdWeek underscores the need for strong computer science education programs to ensure the nation has a pipeline of future workers skilled in technology. It’s a call to action that urges local efforts by parents and teachers to not only pay attention to CS education, but also to elevate its status and quality.

Current projections show we’ll have 1.4 million new computing jobs by 2018, but a recent report from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) found that only nine states count high school computer science courses as a core academic subject in graduation requirements. You don’t have to be an engineer to do the math here—if things stay this way, there will be a shortage of skilled workers to fill these valuable jobs.

We want to increase access to education and technology for all students, which is why we support initiatives like CSEdWeek that are vital to accomplishing that very goal. CSEdWeek is a chance to eliminate misperceptions about CS and computing careers and increase awareness about all the opportunities understanding computing enables. Furthermore, a high-quality education that includes CS teaches students skills and processes that will benefit them no matter what field they choose to go into. The overarching goal is to have K-12 computer science become one of the core disciplines in our national education system.

A few ideas about what you can do this week:

• Students can celebrate CSEdWeek and spread the word by changing their Google+, Facebook, Twitter or other social media profiles to a computer scientist you identify with most.
• Teachers can use CS Unplugged to teach lessons that explain how computers work, and at the same time, address critical mathematics and science concepts from number systems and algorithms to manipulating variables and logic.
• Anyone can “Take the Pledge” to join in and/or support teachers, students, parents and others who are participating in CSEdWeek activities and events.

CSEdWeek is a major activity of Computing in the Core (CinC), a non-partisan coalition of which we’re proud to be a member, alongside other corporations, associations, scientific societies and nonprofits striving to elevate computer science education to a core academic subject in K-12 education. Including CS as a core subject will give young people career-readiness knowledge and the skills necessary to thrive in a technology-focused society.

For additional information on CSEdWeek or to find out about events for students, parents and educators in your area, please visit the CSEdWeek website: www.csedweek.org.