Free at last! © Dr. King

‘How can people in business school get any sleep right now?’

That’s what I thought reading this book. ‘Free’, by Chris Anderson, leaves me clearly convinced that the internet has unleashed a new alternative to doing business. It has taken what King Gillete started and expanded it exponentially. By reducing distribution costs to zero, it has turned 20th century ‘bait and switch’ free into 21st century, ‘truly free.’ Which means you can literally give away free products that you never make money from and still be hugely popular and successful in business (like Google or Linux.)

1.) Does this model translate to art? Software and digital service providers (like Google or Wikipedia) make it work. But can independent musicians or illustrators or writers make it happen? Art is a fickle game – could a rapper make good money giving away his or her music away totally for free from the beginning?

2.) Why are traditional news outlet struggling so much in this model? They have operated in a semi-free environment for a long time. Is it an stubborn old school attitude that refuses to let them convert to free? Or is it that many of them are owned by larger companies that won’t allow them the flexibility to change?

3.) How will the Free model affect software giants like Microsoft and Apple? So far, cloud computing wins for convenience and novelty, but Google Docs still lags behind Microsoft Office. And the average person will pay a dollar for a song before they go futz with retarded music formats and spam laden torrent sites. Free still feels like an internet phenomenon – how long before it invades our home, and we have free cable? Free desktop computing? And truly free music?

Tags: Chris Anderson, Conde Nast, free, Google, open source, Wired Magazine