Spam Dressed as Filet Mignon may end up looking like a good burger: Incoherent messages, blogs and websites with the sole purpose of supporting a commercial interest such as selling various drugs and enhancements are a dime a dozen – so it’s nice to see those with perhaps less than pure motives at least putting a little hustle behind their efforts. For example, as pointed out on Redtape blog, the site Econ4U.org seems to provide reasonable – if basic – personal finance information and advice – that is until you get to the Payday Loan section. While much caution is urged if considering student or car loans, payday loans are far preferable to bouncing a check and only charge the bargain price of $15 in interest for two weeks on a $100 loan. Redtape did some digging and behind the site and found it is supported (through a non-profit) by Washington lobbyist Rick Berman, affectionately known as “Dr. Evil” due to his penchant to represent unpopular industries.
Eagle versus Shark: June marked the publication of Chris Anderson’s Free, a hardcover book espousing the digital law that products or services comprised primarily of ideas (music, news, hardcover books) will eventually succumb to Stewart Brand’s aphorism that “information wants to be free.” Anderson, editor of Wired magazine and author of The Long Tail, believes that creatives should make money “around” that which is being given away, like charging for concert merchandise while writing off the songs. Malcolm Gladwell, best selling author and commercializer of open source sociology, weighed in with a review of Anderson’s book this past week in the New Yorker. While initially offering Anderson some kind words (“His advice is pithy, his tone uncompromising, and his subject matter perfectly timed…”), Gladwell points out two flaws in Anderson’s thesis. First, producing something for ‘practically nothing’ will still cost a fortune if a billion people adopt the product (see YouTube). Second, while a small aspect of production might fall to negligible cost, oftentimes a product is rooted in a larger system that cannot operate without hard currency. In this the software community should take a lesson from the drug industry: ‘The second pill to be manufactured cost less than a cent, while the first cost about $750 million.’
