{"id":1309,"date":"2007-04-16T14:49:35","date_gmt":"2007-04-16T21:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=1309"},"modified":"2007-05-12T16:16:46","modified_gmt":"2007-05-12T23:16:46","slug":"zillowcom-at-the-dawn-of-the-age-of-abundance-working-for-free-is-not-a-crime-trying-to-forbid-it-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1309\/zillowcom-at-the-dawn-of-the-age-of-abundance-working-for-free-is-not-a-crime-trying-to-forbid-it-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Zillow.com at the Dawn of the Age of Abundance: Working for free is not a crime, trying to forbid it is . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

I read a lot of science fiction when I was a kid (more INTx evidence). One of my favorite books was Voyage From Yesteryear<\/i> by James Hogan<\/a>.\"\"The plot turned on the conflict between an economy like ours, based on scarcity and hoarding, and a radically different economy based on abundance and sharing. At the time the book was published, the latter economy would have seemed wildly utopian to a lot of people. But there were others who saw the Singularity<\/a> on the horizon and understood that Hogan’s vision was one way it might play out, in the near term.<\/p>\n

By now, of course, Hogan’s ideas don’t seem very radical at all. There are still a great many economic goods stored behind lock and key. But we are seeing more and more goods, especially intellectual values, delivered at no cost, often with no form of “monetization” at all. I wrote about this in my first BloodhoundBlog post<\/a> and later in a post about disintermediation in the for-pay information business<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The interesting question I asked then is even more interesting now:<\/p>\n

How much future is there in a job that millions of very smart people are willing to do for free?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a question that Zillow.com’s new Q&A feature asks, and it’s a question that seems to be uppermost in the minds of members of The Arizona Board of Appraisal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But here’s an angle that may not have occurred to you: When Zillow.com introduces a potential buyer to a Make Me Move seller, it is engaging in the essential act of real estate brokerage. Why isn’t this “illegal,” much as the Board of Appraisal is attempting to claim that Zillow’s Zestimates are “illegal” appraisals?<\/p>\n

The answer: Because Zillow is not accepting or anticipating compensation for engaging in real estate brokerage. The Babbitts who wrote the real estate laws did so in the hope of creating a cartel, with correspondingly higher fees, by forbidding non-licensees from listing and selling real estate for compensation<\/i>.<\/p>\n

This is a criminal conspiracy against the consumer, the use of the coercive power of the state — guns and prisons — to forbid consumers and vendors Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read a lot of science fiction when I was a kid (more INTx evidence). One of my favorite books was Voyage From Yesteryear by James Hogan.The plot turned on the conflict between an economy like ours, based on scarcity and hoarding, and a radically different economy based on abundance and sharing. At the time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,6,5,19,25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1309","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-enduring-interest","7":"category-marketing","8":"category-real-estate","9":"category-technology","10":"category-zillowcom","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1435,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1435\/ftc-to-ncrc-regarding-zillowcom-what-price-justice\/","url_meta":{"origin":1309,"position":0},"title":"FTC to NCRC regarding Zillow.com: What price justice?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The attempted shakedown of Zillow.com that began last October -- when The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaining that the nascent Seattle-based Automated Valuation Model (AVM) was misleading minority homeowners about the value of their homes -- has come to stunningly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":580,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/580\/zillowcom-shade-down-creeping-disclaimerism-as-a-subject-changing-gambit\/","url_meta":{"origin":1309,"position":1},"title":"Zillow.com shake-down: Creeping disclaimerism as a subject-changing gambit . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Whatever. Just don't pay them off. The issue is a lot bigger than Zillow.com, and Net Exceptionalism is too important an idea to be squandered. Even if you don't know who your friends are, I will hang with you if you will hang tough... Our story so far:Welcome to Race\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":575,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/575\/zillowcom-shake-down-this-is-the-first-shoe-dropping\/","url_meta":{"origin":1309,"position":2},"title":"Zillow.com shake-down: This is the first shoe dropping . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"John Cook, Seattle Post-Intelligencer:Zillow has contacted the NCRC, and the two plan to meet soon, Berenbaum said. He expressed confidence that they can resolve the issues in a way that benefits the entire home valuation industry.Actually, the complaint made me think that Yahoo.com is going to have to cough up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":589,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/589\/the-zillowcom-shake-down-preparing-for-the-denouement\/","url_meta":{"origin":1309,"position":3},"title":"The Zillow.com shake-down: Preparing for the denouement . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 31, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Via Matrix, The New York Times:Zillow.com, the Web site that provides free home valuations, has been accused by a coalition of community activist groups of undervaluing the homes in black and Latino neighborhoods.The headline of the story: \"A Home Valuation Web Site Is Accused of Discrimination.\" I said the headline\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":591,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/591\/the-zillowcom-shake-down-the-piling-on-begins-and-spencer-tracy-is-nowhere-to-be-found\/","url_meta":{"origin":1309,"position":4},"title":"The Zillow.com shake-down: The piling on begins — and Spencer Tracy is nowhere to be found . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 1, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Zillow news since the New York Times story broke: Zillow.com accused of helping predatory lenders Zillow.com: So bad it ought to be banned? Zillow Faces Minority Complaint: Rights watchdog group prepares charge that real estate site undervalues homes of non-whites Zillow.com accused of discrimination in home valuations FTC complaint filed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":574,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/574\/welcome-to-race-piracy-20-zillowcom-is-targetted-for-the-crime-of-having-deep-pockets\/","url_meta":{"origin":1309,"position":5},"title":"Welcome to Race Piracy 2.0: Zillow.com is targetted for the crime of having deep pockets . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Heads up, folks. It's a shake-down. Poor Zillow.com has gotten itself caught up in a classic Jesse Jackson-style shake-down. This is specious bullshit, and everyone who cares about justice -- and about not having the rest of the net raped by posturing diversity pirates -- should line up with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}