{"id":16002,"date":"2012-06-24T10:42:28","date_gmt":"2012-06-24T17:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=16002"},"modified":"2012-06-25T06:46:11","modified_gmt":"2012-06-25T13:46:11","slug":"if-almost-as-good-is-free-or-nearly-free-what-is-the-market-value-of-slightly-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16002\/if-almost-as-good-is-free-or-nearly-free-what-is-the-market-value-of-slightly-better\/","title":{"rendered":"“If almost-as-good is free or nearly free, what is the market value of slightly-better?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Six years ago Friday, I launched BloodhoundBlog with the words cited in the headline:<\/a><\/p>\n

In a subsistence culture, the work of the mind is precious and literally unsupportable. We are by now so rich that millions of people can create intellectual resources that they give away, in turn to be remarketed by others. This may or may not work in the long run for companies tapping into and amplifying open-source-like works of the mind. Consider that aggregator software levels the playing field for small players. The interesting thing is what it will do to companies whose entire business model is based on scarcity and hoarding. If almost-as-good is free or nearly free, what is the market value of slightly-better?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ve hit that theme again and again over the years: How much future is there in a job that millions of very smart people are willing to do for free?<\/a><\/p>\n

Stewart Brand said “information wants to be free”<\/a>. This has intellectual property implications far beyond ordinary information. But with respect to<\/em> that ordinary information — news, opinion, fiction, poetry, almost all music, etc. — the war is over. Hoarding lost. The challenge amidst this vast abundance is not getting people to pay<\/em> for your information — but simply getting them to pay attention<\/em> to it.<\/p>\n

The daily newspaper has no hope whatever of nicking me for fifty cents. The question that will decide if there is even to be<\/em> a newspaper is, can they hold onto my eyes for as long as fifty seconds? And will someone pay for those eyes in the random hope of piercing my vast indifference to advertising?<\/p>\n

It comes down to career advice, I think, for the newspaperati and for all of us: How much future is there in a job that millions of very smart people are willing to do for free? Maybe not the same work, but so close that any differences become academic. And: If you’re committed to sharing information even in a marketplace where ordinary information is so abundant as to be without monetary value, what are you going to do to make a living?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At Forbes<\/em> magazine, Susannah <\/a>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Six years ago Friday, I launched BloodhoundBlog with the words cited in the headline: In a subsistence culture, the work of the mind is precious and literally unsupportable. We are by now so rich that millions of people can create intellectual resources that they give away, in turn to be remarketed by others. This may […]<\/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":[24,212,29,379,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-egoism-in-action","7":"category-flourishing","8":"category-group-therapy","9":"category-innovation","10":"category-technology","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":64,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/64\/people-power\/","url_meta":{"origin":16002,"position":0},"title":"People power…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 29, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The phenomenon Chris Anderson writes about in this article from Wired Magazine is a secondary consequence of outrageous abundance. In a subsistence culture, the work of the mind is precious and literally unsupportable. We are by now so rich that millions of people can create intellectual resources that they give\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":954,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/954\/disintermediation-where-oh-yeah\/","url_meta":{"origin":16002,"position":1},"title":"Disintermediation where? Oh, yeah . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"HouseValues.com is laying off 60 employees. Why? Zillow.com. Year-over-year, mainstream media job cuts are up by 88%. Why? Ahem... The question I asked was: How much future is there in a job that millions of very smart people are willing to do for free? But, but, but! Surely the work\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":14712,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14712\/the-old-luxury-creme-puff-goes-bye-bye-frustration-and-a-sedan\/","url_meta":{"origin":16002,"position":2},"title":"The old luxury creme puff goes bye bye, frustration, and a sedan","author":"Robert Worthington","date":"June 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a nearly 3 weeks since I sold my 99' Cadillac V8 Luxury problematic SeVille! \u00a0The car looked great but like a blonde haired, blue eyed beauty looks can be deceiving. \u00a0I got a fair price for the Caddy and I was happy, until I went to the bank\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2162,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2162\/tv-writers-shoot-selves-in-foot-rassafrassin-swearing-unconvincing\/","url_meta":{"origin":16002,"position":3},"title":"TV writers shoot selves in foot: Rassafrassin’ swearing unconvincing","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"TechCrunch:The strike poses an interesting challenge for television at a time where internet usage has surpassed TV viewing time in most homes. Users are already choosing online entertainment over TV, how many more will switch off their televisions when their favorite shows stop going to air? These eyeballs present a\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":10884,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10884\/what-does-information-wants-to-be-free-really-mean-it-doesnt-matter-how-long-you-spent-making-that-mudpie-it-aint-worth-nothing-to-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":16002,"position":4},"title":"What does “information wants to be free” really mean? It doesn’t matter how long you spent making that mudpie, it’s worth nothing to me.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Reflecting on Jeff Brown's post on economics, which in turn referenced an argument by Malcolm Galdwell, I made a short movie explicating the meme \"information wants to be free.\" Cliff's Notes: When a market good is so redundantly abundant as to be, essentially, ubiquitous and unavoidable, its market price will\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":1023,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1023\/sellers-ready-for-cherry-picking-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":16002,"position":5},"title":"Sellers: Ready for cherry-picking time?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This is me in today's Arizona Republic (permanent link). \u00a0Sellers: Ready for cherry-picking time? We can't grow cherry trees in the desert, but it's cherry-picking time in the Phoenix real estate market. Why? Because even though the buyers seem to be coming out in normal numbers, there is still a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16002","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=16002"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16005,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16002\/revisions\/16005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}