Free | Response

After reading and talking about Chris Anderson’s book “Free” this week, it’s crazy to think about how much has changed just in our lifetimes. I remember being a kid and hearing that nothing is ever free. Someone had to sacrifice or sweat so we could enjoy the luxuries that we have today, especially those beyond the digital world.

Based on what we talked about it class, it’s interesting to think about that 5% that’s paying for all the free stuff we get online. My first framing question asked who, specifically, would actually pay for the premium versions of free information/services (e.g. Pandora, LinkedIn), and I already feel myself being sucked in! Maybe if I weren’t in school and actually making a salary, I’d go for some of those premium offerings (especially if I have another job where I have Pandora on all day). Although Anderson makes some good points about companies making these “free” offers to earn consumer loyalty, but I’m not sure that can be applied to every industry and profession. Someone has to have the seed money to get the company started first. Someone has to pay for all that free stuff before they can even consider creating a premium edition to earn a profit.

This book does make me wonder what our role as content producers will be in the future. It seems to me that knowledge is only valuable while it’s in your head (but then how do you make money?) because once it’s published online, it’s a free market. Will this impact the salaries of those who seek to become content producers, like writers, musicians, and digital artists? Maybe eventually we’ll all be producers, whether or not you have any really knowledge or skills to share (maybe this has already started).

I also think it’s sort of ironic that in my research of Chris Anderson online, there’s a lot of talk about him plagiarizing portions of the very book that talks about information wanting to be free. Looks like he may have jumped the gun on that one.