I have a review of Chris Anderson's Free in the new edition of Prospect. With admirable irony, the piece is only available to paying subscribers. Now that's what I call a business model. But in any case, here is the conclusion:
The challenge he poses is to work out which elements of his exaggerations are worth taking seriously. We can argue endlessly about exactly how far Moore’s law will permeate or how long it can continue into the future. We can argue about how close to zero marginal cost production needs to be before zero price is possible. It is up to businesses themselves to work out where to draw the line. But one has to accept that Anderson has a point, even if he doesn’t know when to stop making it.
There's something I find mildly irresistable about Chris Anderson, not unlike the allure of the aggressive neo-liberal. I've already attempted a political critique of 'free' in this piece and had a go at his 'end of theory' in a previous blog posting. I'm not quite sure where I'd be without him, in fact.
Update
As Tom notes in the comments below, the article is now freely available. So your eyeballs are now free to wander over the text, unhindered by economic necessity, save only for the subliminal messages and tie-ins that Prospect will be scattering alongside it in the hope of paying their rent...
"The challenge he poses is to work out which elements of his exaggerations are worth taking seriously."
I think you've done yourself out of a job - this one sentence sums up everything Anderson's done.
Posted by: Phil | July 23, 2009 at 11:18 AM
The review (which I thought was great, but then I am biased, having commissioned it) is now not only Free to read on the Prospect website, but has received a response on the Prospect blog from Mr Free himself. He may talk the talk, but he he also does quite a bit of walking the walk, so far as engaging with his critics is concerned. Kudos all round.
http://blog.prospectblogs.com/2009/07/23/making-sense-of-chris-andersons-exaggerations/comment-page-1/#comment-7544
Posted by: Tom Chatfield | July 24, 2009 at 01:13 PM
I must have missed something somewhere about the google business model being about free. Surely the consumers of google's product are (ironically) the 'producers' - essentially brands and businesses that are too lame/lazy or undifferentiated/unoriginal to get hits on their site by crawling up the search list the old fashioned way so they pay google MONEY (lots of money) to 'consume' prospective customers.
As a user of google I am expected to come up with my own search (google doesn't really help with its 'i feel lucky option') in which 'value equation' google is just my trusted agent who doesn't try to spin my search too obviously into the lap of some paying guest. I feel 'enabled' by this and google attracts me further by 'selling' more free stuff to keep me interested in their particular form of dialogue [box].
As an aside (and perhaps the follow up 'blockbuster') there is now some evidence of 'anti-price' in some markets. Quite a few retailers would go bust if it wasn't for the slotting fees they charge to be on their shelves as they spend most of their time loss leading products to get shoppers in the door in the first place. Such activity would be uneconomic if it wasn't for the supplier subsidies. One of such fees referred to it as like 'crack cocaine' for retailers.
But maybe I too exaggerate? : )
Posted by: Bruce Davis | July 24, 2009 at 08:21 PM