better than free

in a world that seems to be heading towards giving consumers what they want (finally), Kevin Kelly is exploring how we can make money from free stuff by making it better than free. In short he says that there are eight different attributes to things that people will willingly pay for even though it's available for free in some other form:

• interpretation: more money is made by manuals on zope and zope consultants than by zope itself. Now think about Linux, OS Commerce etc .. Clever, eh? :-)
• authenticity: for those who can afford it (it's a risk getting stuff that is illegally free) - take the radiohead album online thing for example
• accessibility: having it available anywhere (backed up, centrally hosted etc)
• embodiment: something touchy feely to have and to hold and love and squeeze (digital content isn't tangible but the interface is, and availability in different formats enable you to experience it in better quality)
• patronage: owning a piece of your favourite band.. see radiohead again. If you like a band you're going to want to know that they're going to be around to make the next album :-)
• findability: the publicity angle of giving something away - it means you're suddenly in the public eye. Priceless?

Whilst he didn't list advertising he did refer to it. We've still all got a long way to go to find an acceptable model for advertising that will be easier to swallow by the public.

The social networking craze has shown that marketshare is equivalent to currency to some, providing they can capitalise on it when they get it.

mmm lunchtime... think I'll go eat something.