Aug 22 2009
Free: a new rule in the digital economy
I’ve been always fascinated by the new economics in the digital economy. The most amazing thing is that the old economical principles have to be rewritten entirely. Cases in point are the substantial startup capital, amount of physical materials, and human labor required in the old economy.
And new principles are being invented/discovered. There are quite a few of them.
After unearthed the “Long Tail’ principle, Chris Anderson just summarized another one: “Free! The Future of a Radical Price”. To prove the power of Free, he stated:
FREE will be available in all digital forms–ebook, web book, and audiobook–for free shortly after the hardcover is published on July 7th (exact dates will be announced in the posts at left as each form is released).
And he’s serious! Now the audio version is free downloadable: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-07/mf_freer
Since I spend marginal ratio of my time with paper books, I just cancelled my order from Amazon. I guess Mr. Andreson had accounted me in the small percentage. I do have his Long Tail book on my bookshelf and almost certainly will buy his future books.
You can also read his earlier article to under how the work had evolved here.
http://www.wired.com/print/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free
