Kevin Kelly's latest manifesto: Better than Free (via Helen Blower's twitter feed, hblowers) is about what he describes as generative characteristics of otherwise-free resources... traits you can monetize in the interest of supporting free services that people want, but won't click through currency to acquire on their own.
His metaphor of the internet as copy machine is an interesting take, and leads to
we buy when we pay for something that could be free.
- Immediacy
- Personalization
- Interpretation
- Authenticity
- Accessibility
- Embodiment
- Patronage
- Findability
The value-add in these generatives is in most cases self evident, but he provides lucid amplifications of each. Twenty years ago libraries could be thought of as the preeminent purveyors of at least half of these resource traits in the information value chain. In the value-web we live in today, there is lots of competition, but by no means a monopoly (Google and Amazon notwithstanding). This is a good thought-piece to factor into our continuing effort to reinvent our profession.
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Image: The graves (or at least markers) of those who fell at the side of George Armstrong Custer are no longer the only totems of the Little Bighorn monument. Inclusion is good.
Hi Stu. I couldn't agree more that there's important stuff to ponder here. The notion of "value-added" is changing dramatically in this economy of information abundance. If customers aren’t able to easily associate an intangible value for library services, can we say in confidence that they’d be willing to accept the tangible value of free?
Posted by: Helene | January 14, 2009 at 05:51 AM