Freebies on the Net

You're just too good to be true -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
In this week's TIME magazine, Justin Fox discusses the gift economy and one of its chief proponents, Yale law professor Yochai Benkler. What is the gift economy you ask? It's the recent development of software, services and downloadable media offered free of charge. A related term being used is Web 2.0 which describes a 21st century Internet featuring collaborative enterprises and license-free software. It sounds almost too good to be true -- certainly a violation of Milton Friedman's dictum ("no free lunches").

There are examples a-plenty: the LINUX operating system and STAR Office are free downloads. Wikipedia, for all its purported inaccuracies is a comprehensive knowledge base offered for free. Google Docs and Spreadsheets give you free office apps and Google email gives you many megs of free storage. The web also gives you free maps, weather forecasts, recipes, financial advice, medical advice, dating services and clippable coupons. All of it for free -- how can it be?

Benkler points out a couple of things that buoy collaborative enterprises: each person's contribution is relatively small; it's not an all-consuming task. Also in many if not most cases, it's a labor of love -- people are doing something they're passionate about. It's not as important to make a million dollars as it is to influence the world with your wit, your wisdom or your killer algorithm. That being said, there is always money to be made for enterprising capitalists out there. IBM has made billions of dollars implementing LINUX systems. IBM doesn't own LINUX, but they own the expertise that can set up a LINUX server shop. Another strategy that has been very successful is multi-tiered service. Flickr will host photos for free, but there are limits on file size and number. For a fee, they'll give you a lot more space. Dating services are renowned for giving you a limited free service (no chat, limited photo storage). Pay the fee, and you're on to dating nirvana (you can hope). Free web hosting services will plague you with ads until you cough up some dough.

I'm reminded of the song from Magic Christian. "If you want it, here it is -- come and get it. But you better get it 'cause it's going fast". Lest we get cynical, Web 2.0 does offer some genuine no-strings-attached freebies. Star Office and Google Docs don't bait you with ads or pleas for donations. They really are no-cost, no-obligation downloads. Somewhere, Milton Friedman is rolling over at these pronouncements.

Back to the song: "Would you run away from a fool and his money?". No I wouldn't. By the way, fools like Google are having stock splits right now. How can things be so ass-backwards that a company doing giveaways is making money? It's an outrage -- an outrage that forces me to download Google Docs and look for the gimmick. Maybe they’re planting subliminal messages in the menus and the help text. If I don’t find any gimmicks, I might have to be uncharacteristically sunny and conclude that this gift economy stuff might work out after all.

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