Cloudy Thinking

I subscribed to Business 2.0 today for $10 for 24 issues. So what?

Business 2.0 has pretty good content, some free, some fee. (In particular, Om Malik’s stuff is usually great.)

Today a friend forwarded an especially interesting Future Boy Business 2.0 article: “The Economics of Peer Production, Could the culture of participation threaten the existence of the firm?” (By Erick Schonfeld, September 30, 2005)

I wanted to point to the article, so I went to the Business 2.0 site. Then I thought, “Hmm, this has happened to me before. Maybe it’s time to ante up.” So I whipped out my Visa card and did the deed.

Here’s a brief excerpt from Schonfeld’s interesting article:

[tease]
Rather, the strongest explanation is also the simplest: It is in people’s self-interest to contribute. People participate in peer production because a) it’s cheaper than buying the product outright, or b) the product would not be available otherwise. At its best, the final good is the result of a collective intelligence and could never be produced any other way. The peer producers are their own consumers. They get a better product by tapping into the knowledge pool. And they get a product that exactly fits their needs because they help design it (often with minimal effort). How do you compete with that?

Back to my impulse buy of a Business 2.0 subscription. It’s rare for me. I have been a delighted “for fee” reader of the Wall Street Journal on line. I was a paper WSJ subscriber for many years, but when my work situation took me away from home (during the week) over five years ago, I signed up for the WSJ electronic version then canceled the dead trees WSJ. It’s pricey, yet invaluable.

I subscribe to Wired, because the “get started” subscription price is so cheap, why not? My only other on line subscription is the MMPORG World of Warcraft, which has yet to capture my imagination. Maybe I’m just too dull and ordinary to play fantasy on line games?

Anyway, a friend forwards me a great article. I read and think “This is good stuff.” I go to find a URL, and instead, I pay Business 2.0 $10 of my hard earned money. How cool is that?

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 1st, 2005 at 9:40 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.