Comments on: Free as in beer http://weblogsky.com/2009/07/07/free-as-in-beer/ Smart thinking about digital culture, media, and the Internet. Fri, 18 May 2012 15:50:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Jon Lebkowsky http://weblogsky.com/2009/07/07/free-as-in-beer/comment-page-1/#comment-800 Jon Lebkowsky Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:52:20 +0000 http://weblogsky.com/2009/07/07/free-as-in-beer/#comment-800 These discussions always get me thinking about Stewart Brand's "information wants to be free." What he really said was this: "On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it's so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other." He later said that the tension just won't go away. And it hasn't. These discussions always get me thinking about Stewart Brand’s “information wants to be free.”

What he really said was this: “On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other.”

He later said that the tension just won’t go away. And it hasn’t.

]]> By: Rayne http://weblogsky.com/2009/07/07/free-as-in-beer/comment-page-1/#comment-796 Rayne Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:28:33 +0000 http://weblogsky.com/2009/07/07/free-as-in-beer/#comment-796 Oh foo, you beat me to the punchline, Jon. I have been working on a rebuttal piece about the tension between new online media and old school print media, focusing on the misunderstanding of "free". Old school thinks everything's being given away, as in free beer, and they'll have not a drop left to drink, while new media realizes is free as in free puppy. There's a negotiated responsibility or liability which comes with content given freely. By the way, you can get Anderson's book FREE online at Scrib'd -- <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/17135767/FREE-by-Chris-Anderson" rel="nofollow">for free</a>. If you want a print copy, that's your responsibility/liability. Oh foo, you beat me to the punchline, Jon. I have been working on a rebuttal piece about the tension between new online media and old school print media, focusing on the misunderstanding of “free”. Old school thinks everything’s being given away, as in free beer, and they’ll have not a drop left to drink, while new media realizes is free as in free puppy. There’s a negotiated responsibility or liability which comes with content given freely.

By the way, you can get Anderson’s book FREE online at Scrib’d — for free. If you want a print copy, that’s your responsibility/liability.

]]> By: Trevor Rosen http://weblogsky.com/2009/07/07/free-as-in-beer/comment-page-1/#comment-795 Trevor Rosen Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:48:59 +0000 http://weblogsky.com/2009/07/07/free-as-in-beer/#comment-795 It's worth noting that most of Gladwell's critique of Anderson's book relies on criticisms that Gladwell's own work is almost uniquely vulnerable to -- spinning "trends" from anecdotes, relying on non-evidence evidence to make points, supplying little more than authorial intuition that premises are correct, etc. Anil Dash had a fun post on this recently. It’s worth noting that most of Gladwell’s critique of Anderson’s book relies on criticisms that Gladwell’s own work is almost uniquely vulnerable to — spinning “trends” from anecdotes, relying on non-evidence evidence to make points, supplying little more than authorial intuition that premises are correct, etc. Anil Dash had a fun post on this recently.

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