Originally posted at Fan To Pro. Very long, very ranty, but as it relates to business models, I figured some of my regulars, who are considering creative businesses, may be interested.
Right now on the internet there's a lot of discussion on the book
"Free", a book exploring, well, the impact of freeness (and the
internet's way of delivering it) on business models. I've not read it
yet, I probably should, if only to know where I'm going to fall on what
appears to be a lot of inevitable arguments.
The discussions have
made me speculate on the future of media – because media is a
repository of geeky jobs. Comics, books, reviews, games, etc. What
does free mean to us in such industries – or those of us who want to go
into them. I will attempt to keep my thoughts somewhat above the level
of "ramble".
So imagine you're going online to provide some media
- a game, a comic, an online novel delivered in snippets, etc. You're
going to do free because Free gets attention and there's a lot of
competition. Here's what I think it means for you, the professional
geek