"For more than a decade, the Net successfully denied economic reality."
This statement in Charles Platt's article in May's Wired Magazine titled The Future Will be Fast but Not Free," grabbed my attention. He points out that almost everything on the Net was given away free and that business cannot make money off the concept that "information wants to be free."
Then he makes the following statement, which goaded me to retort:
"Broadband will destroy, once and for all, the egalitarian vision of the Internet."
He follows this up by pointing out how building the infrastructure and laying fiber in the ground are very expensive and customers will need to pay. The more customers use the more they will pay. No more free stuff. He foresees the Internet as a big distribution system for videos, movies and music. We will have packaged entertainment on demand.
In other words, the Internet will be just like today's TV, except you will have tremendous choice.
I respond to this with 4 statements:
- The Net is Not an Economy
- Websites Need Not Make Money to be Useful to Business
- Information DOES Want to be Free
- Broadband Will NOT Destroy the Web's Egalitarianism
1 - The Net is Not an Economy
The Internet is not an old economy. It is not a new economy. It is not an economy. It is a society consisting of people from all corners of the Globe in communication, interaction and discussion.
Like any other society, it has many other facets to it besides business. Those of us in business tend to forget this. But on the Internet you may find:
- Government sites
- Educational Sites
- International Sites
- Political Sites
- Cultural Sites
- Religious Sites
and lots, lots more.
I repeat: The Internet is not an economy, but a Global society.
2 - Websites Need Not Make Money to be Useful for Business
Platt, in his article, states that a business must make money to survive. Of course. Who will argue with that?
However, a website is not a business. It is part of a business. It is there to support a business. Generally, a sucessful business consists of more than a website. Many dot coms crashed, not because they gave information away for free, but because they did nothing "offline." There are other ways besides using the Web for getting financing, for advertising, for communicating with customers, vendors and colleagues. One of the most mportant "offline" activities is fulfillment. Many of the crashed dot coms were weak here.
Selling is not necessarily the best activity for many businesses on the Net. Take a look at IBM, a company that understands the Internet. IBM has an XML Developer site - The XML Zone at http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/ - which is filled with information useful to software developers. Does IBM make money on this? I doubt it. At least not directly. The site is there to serve its customers. In the long run it helps IBM gain and KEEP customers.
Almost all U.S. universities and many universities all over the world have websites. They do not sell anything. They provide information to help would-be students, students, professors and others. Though the site does not bring in money, it helps the university do a better job.
Among the many non-selling activities a website may be used for are:
- Publicity
- Recruitment
- Product support
- Attracting and communicating with partners and associates
- Communicating with customers and clients
- Learning about the market
- ......etc.....etc.
3 - Information Wants to be Free
How can you have a decent society without the free flow of information? It is impossible. Information flow through the Internet is comparable to blood flow in humans. It gives it life, encourages the development of ideas and enables all of us to learn from each other.
When I speak of information I do not mean organized information that you find in books, software, music and videos. These are developed by skilled people who deserve to be compensated of their work.
However, the concept of "fair use" must be maintained. People should be allowed to quote from books, evaluate software and discuss music without being required to pay for doing so. This is vital informataio flow that keeps the Internet a learning network.
4 - Broadband Will NOT Destroy the Web's Egalitarianism
Broadband is here. It has its uses. But it will not take over the Internet. Platt says that the cost of broadband will probably be about $50 a month, plus a cost of about $3 to $5 per downloadable item. This is prohibitively expensive for most people.
Platt paints a picture which places powerful big corporation in control, selling videos. But this type of activity is foreign to the Net. It belongs on television, a medium for the masses. On the Net, there will be people-to-people sharing. So far, the sharing has been most done with text. In the future it will, no doubt, encompass video and other fast media.
Here is a quote from Claire Tristman's article, Broadbadn's Coming Attractions, in June's Technology Review:
"Successful broadband applications are almost certain to evolve toward ...person-to-person sharing over the Internet rather than the downloading of mass-audience movies that are available elsewhere."
The Internet is not a tool for big business. It is a tool for everyone. True, some on the Internet have greater voices than others. But each person has the opportunity to make his or her mark. The Internet never was completely egalitarian. Nor can any society be so. However, the Internet is by far more egalitarian than any preceding society.
