In advance of the release of Chris Anderson’s new book “Free: the Future of a Radical Price,” a debate has erupted on the value of free in today’s marketplace. Anderson has been blogging about the tenants of “Free” over the past year to get feedback and solidify his premise. He postulates that in this digital economy pricing will gravitate toward free – YouTube (free entertainment & community); News outlets (free news); Open Source software, music, social computing, etc. This presents a major challenge (and many opportunities) for content creators who have built their success on charging for resources. Particularly for those resources that are becoming more readily available for free online and in the cloud. Understanding these concepts will help you better compete, coexist and thrive.
Here are four articles that frame the conversation. The debate is interesting since it provides several viewpoints.
Chris Anderson’s Blog
Malcolm Gladwell’s criticism to the Free concept
Seth Godin’s response to Malcolm Gladwell criticism
Marc Cuban’s response – Free vs. Freely Distributed
As we look to week three of the class, you can use this conversation to ponder these new questions about a “Free” economy:
· How do you monetize your resources – will your pricing model be relevant in the future?
· What are your competitors’ pricing and value strategies?
· How can you build value into your work so people are willing to pay for it?
· What are the disruptive technologies in the future, based on this free model? How will you engage users/viewers to stay competitive and engage your audience?
My personal favorite line in the articles is Gladwell’s assertion that, “YouTube will lose close to half a billion dollars this year. If it were a bank, it would be eligible for TARP funds.”
For your Week 3 blog Post, analyze the arguments of Marc, Chris, Seth, Malcolm, et. al. and tell us if you think Anderson is right. Most importantly, what is the impact on web-based storytelling? Blog your answer and post it by Tuesday Midnight July 7.
The feed aggregator is now up and running. For how long I am uncertain. I am having a difficult time getting FeedRaider to send me a confirmation email, and I fear they will crash the site after 48 hours. What do you expect for free? You can find the list of blogs here.
http://feedraider.com/page/252505/COM597C-Summer-2009-Class-Feeds
Just in case
the feed breaks, I have posted a list of enrolled students linked to their blogs on the class website. You can check there for easy navigation to the blogs.
Kick Start the Class
OK, here we go. This is the central meeting site for the 2009 class. This site will have the schedule, grades and resource information. The class blog site is our content repository. I will start it off with a few optional articles to read. The first is more in the pop culture realm than academic, but I found it an interesting analysis of how changing the way we deliver the media changes the message. The medium is the message, and all that. This is a Vanity Fair article (albeit dated) from two years ago on the politics of YouTube. I won't claim to agree or disagree; only that it is a perspective worth noting.
Also, I will need your e-mail addresses and blog urls sent to me so I can get the list coordinated. Please get it done by midnight, Sunday June 28.
If in your academic travels you bump into something we might want to review please pass it on to me or post it in your blog. I think we learn more from each other than we do from the book. Besides, it is critical that we stay current on the shifting technology of web delivered media.
The Syllabus is posted as a word document in the file section, if you need it.
This is where I will post articles, links and resources that I bump into that I feel might be helpful to you. Additionally, I will use the class hash-tag on Twitter to let you know I've found something. None of these resources are required reading unless I clearly say so. They are just things I think you will enjoy or find enlightening. The first two are two survey presentations by the Edison Research Group. They were specifically created for radio executives but the information is very pertinent to the discussions in our class. The first is titled "The Infinite Dial" and is the research I have referenced in tonight's class. The second is I a nice report on podcasting. As if you don't have enough to read, I have provided two additional files for you. One is a great (and insanely dense) "bible" that will give you clear insights and definitions on the technology of video and television. Consider yourself warned, this is a major gear-head paper and most will find it rather arcane. But there are always a few folks in class who are seeking a deeper technical knowledge on the topic and I will continue to do my best to provide that information. This paper is published by the Quantel Corporation and can be downloaded from their site. I have parked it here to make it a little easier to find. I was doing some research on Brightcove (you will hear more about them as we explore syndicated video distribution models) and I came across this article in PC Magazine (not exactly the last bastion of academic rigor, but hey, you take the information where you find it.) This article is a nice quick review of a few of the exploding video distribution sites on the web.
Blog by midnight Wednesday, July 1
There are two "articles" I offer for your review. Please choose one and write how this concept of Socail Media could impact storytelling on the web.
This first is lecture by Clay Shirky at this years' TED conference.
http://mashable.com/2009/06/16/twitter-facebook-history/
The
second is a little news article about Microsoft abandoning the Soapbox
platform. "The what?" you may ask. If you have any thoughts on how
video is provided on the web, here is a starting point for you.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10265858-56.html
Finally, once I get your blog urls I will throw everything into a feed aggregator like this. Unfortunately, FeedRaider has chosen this moment in time to shut down the system so I am uncertain what the URL will be. I will let you know once I fugure something out.
