If you haven't already, you'll want to read Stan Sesser's commentary regarding your article in the Aug. 31 Asian Wall Street Journal. I'm tempted to cc it to you now, but that would violate Dow Jones' copyright, and no doubt illustrate your point about the erosion of excludability in the new cybereconomy. (It's interesting that his article is linked to your site -- and my thanks to the Journal for that -- but I wonder if Dow Jones' online paid subscription site will be so generous in reciprocating.)(posted 8756 days ago)Stan takes your views on the new economy as the basis for postulating that journalists, like academics, may find themselves unable to derive an income for their work as all content becomes free on the Net. My experience, at least thus far, has been very much to the contrary. The initial impact of web-based publishing has been to greatly INCREASE the demand for reporters, editors, writers and authors as multiple online ventures eagerly seek to generate content that can differentiate their ventures.
Certainly the payment/revenue models are still evolving and ever-more information is being made available for free. Yet concurrently, very specialized and pertinent information is selling for more money than ever before (see the proliferation of consulting/information businesses like the Gartner Group, IDC, etc., and the plethora of venture capitalists pouring money into online-information ventures these days).
Long-term, there will no doubt be a shakout of weaker web- publishing ventures (as well as of journalists, professors and knowledge-workers who provide little value-added) just as there has been consolidation in traditional "old media" industries. But to extrapolate that ALL information will eventually be free, and that thus knowledge-workers will go the way of medieval opera singers and chair carvers seems counterintuitive to me, considering the rising value of pertinent information and intelligence in today's world.
As a freelance writer and editor with a clear self-interest in the matter, perhaps I'm being Pollyannna-ish. But my own experience suggests that the need for skilled knowledge workers, authors, professors etc. will only increase as the Web deluges us all in an onslaught of indiscriminate information. In the end, none of us wants to offer our services totally for free, so systems of payment/compensation will have to evolve to support the continued provision of our services.
By the way, this is a very interesting, easy to use, website. May patronage and plaudits flow your way . . .