Esther Dyson on the Value of Attention

Christian Ahlert writes "OpenBusiness talked to Esther Dyson about how business models are adapting to an internet environment that champions openness. Esther's upcoming PC Forum focuses on how users are transforming the internet and placing new demands on businesses. From Open Source to Open Content, new forms of organization, production and distribution are emerging. But how can these ventures produce a revenue and sustain themselves? For how long can we give content away for free?"

Estie Estie Estie...

[Anonymous Coward]

Two years before ICANN was created word got to me that "If you guys don't straighten out this DNS mess the CIA is gonna send Ester in to fix this".

Darling Estie never kept any appointment with me and apparantly doesn't read email she responds to. She spammed me for two years before I blacklisted her domain.

I can't recall being more disappoined in any human I ever wanted to meet. Utterly vacuous. Whatever she says, do the opposite which you probably thought was the right thing to do in the first place.

Usenet has been providing free answers for a quarter century. What's she up to now? Whatever it is, I promise you she's "invested" in it.

Anon for a reason. Sorry. I've read Barris' book.

Re:Estie Estie Estie...

[Orrin Bloquy]

My brother worked with her. I wish you were trolling, but you aren't. She invested in boondoggle after boondoggle without doing any homework, picked her toes at board meetings, cursed us with the term "Web 2.0," and in general establishes herself as the tech world's Paris Hilton: a vacuous faux-blonde trading off her father's name without actually achieving anything. Faith Popcorn with less substance.

Mod me down if you care to.

Content has been relegated to bait...

[maillemaker]

Clearly most people have no problems copying digital content. Consequently, digital content is quickly becoming worthless - you can't sell it if everyone can get it for free.

I think in the very near future people are going to give up trying to get people to pay for it, and instead use it as "bait" to get people to visit regular content outlets, where they can be exposed to advertisements for "real" (non-digitial) products.

Digital content will continue to be the "free coffee" from TFA.

Steve

Re:For how long can we give content away for free?

[MarkusQ]

they were discussing giving things away for free as a business model.

Well, given that just the other day I expressed my comparable views on the "business model" meme [slashdot.org] I can at least claim consistency. Trying to push it back into the "business model" frame completely misses my point because is exactly what I'm objecting to.

Not all organizations, or ventures, or whatever you want to call them are businesses, and not all of them need (or want) business models, profits, or whatever. Algebra has lasted for centuries without turning a dime (though early practitioners did consider it "intellectual property" and jealously guarded "their" methods). There are not-for-profit organizations that have lasted as long as any business (longer, I suspect).

Just to make it crystal clear: I'm not ignoring the question of how long can all this free content from businesses that need to have viable business models can continue, I'm objecting to the underlying assumption that that's where all the free content comes from in the first place.

--MarkusQ

P.S. You forgot to give me your credit card number, but you obviously read my content. Are you admitting to being leacher? And, for that matter, unless you're an astroturfer of some sort (and thus getting paid to entertain me) I suppose I owe you something as well.

Unless, of course, we are doing the unthinkable and entertaining each other without a viable business model!