Having recently read Chris Anderson’s book on the emerging free business model, I found this question interesting — are we entitled to free? Most of the comments on the blog post seemed to be leaning towards a negative answer. I’ll frame the issue with a different question: Can some portion of content or a service produced for a paying audience also be made available for free?
Today’s New York Times has an article on what programmers are doing with government data — it is great to see the value creativity can create out of something as mundane as reams of government data. StumbleSafely suggests safe routes home for DC residents based on crime statistics — Routesy is an iPhone app for transit schedules in San Francisco. Much of this data has been available publicly for years, but not in a format that was readily accessed. But services like DataSF and Data.gov are changing that, and opening the door for creativity. What about in your company? Is it easy to get at various data sets, or are they locked up behind proprietary and departmental walls? Unfortunately all too often I see more of the latter than the former. Technology isn’t the problem here — making data should not require a lot of technical work. What it takes is a committment to the process, and trust in the benefits of openness over the tradition of hording information. Information = power? How about openness = innovation? And builds value many times more valuable than the old way.
Twitter and other companies are smart enough to let their users innovate — see what catches on — and then integrate the successful features. At the university can we empower students to do the same with classroom technology systems and course management/learning systems? Why not? Our users are certainly a cut above the average Twitter user — at least more selectively chosen!
Randall Rode's online home for thoughts, notes, and experiments with a wide range of technology topics. Visit the about page for info on my recent projects and professional background. I welcome your comments!
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