Quelle économie pour la gratuité ?
28/10/08 18:29
Lire l’article: Wall Street Journal
The Economics of Giving It Away
In a battered economy, free goods and services online are more attractive than ever. So how can the suppliers make a business model out of nothing?
By CHRIS ANDERSON
Over the past decade, we have built a country-sized economy online where the default price is zero -- nothing, nada, zip. Digital goods -- from music and video to Wikipedia -- can be produced and distributed at virtually no marginal cost, and so, by the laws of economics, price has gone the same way, to $0.00. For the Google Generation, the Internet is the land of the free.
Which is not to say companies can't make money from nothing. Gratis can be a good business. How? Pretty simple: The minority of customers who pay subsidize the majority who do not. Sometimes that's two different sets of customers, as in the traditional media model: A few advertisers pay for content so lots of consumers can get it cheap or free. The concept isn't new, but now that same model is powering everything from photo sharing to online bingo. The last decade has seen the extension of this "two-sided market" model far beyond media, and today it is the revenue engine for all of the biggest Web companies, from Facebook and MySpace to Google itself.
In other cases, the same digital economics have spurred entirely new business models, such as "Freemium," a free version supported by a paid premium version. This model uses free as a form of marketing to put the product in the hands of the maximum number of people, converting just a small fraction to paying customers. It's an inversion of the old free sample promotion: Rather than giving away one brownie to sell 99 others, you give away 99 virtual penguins to sell one virtual igloo. (Confused? Ask a child: This is the business model for the phenomenally successful Club Penguin.)
The Economics of Giving It Away
In a battered economy, free goods and services online are more attractive than ever. So how can the suppliers make a business model out of nothing?
By CHRIS ANDERSON
Over the past decade, we have built a country-sized economy online where the default price is zero -- nothing, nada, zip. Digital goods -- from music and video to Wikipedia -- can be produced and distributed at virtually no marginal cost, and so, by the laws of economics, price has gone the same way, to $0.00. For the Google Generation, the Internet is the land of the free.
Which is not to say companies can't make money from nothing. Gratis can be a good business. How? Pretty simple: The minority of customers who pay subsidize the majority who do not. Sometimes that's two different sets of customers, as in the traditional media model: A few advertisers pay for content so lots of consumers can get it cheap or free. The concept isn't new, but now that same model is powering everything from photo sharing to online bingo. The last decade has seen the extension of this "two-sided market" model far beyond media, and today it is the revenue engine for all of the biggest Web companies, from Facebook and MySpace to Google itself.
In other cases, the same digital economics have spurred entirely new business models, such as "Freemium," a free version supported by a paid premium version. This model uses free as a form of marketing to put the product in the hands of the maximum number of people, converting just a small fraction to paying customers. It's an inversion of the old free sample promotion: Rather than giving away one brownie to sell 99 others, you give away 99 virtual penguins to sell one virtual igloo. (Confused? Ask a child: This is the business model for the phenomenally successful Club Penguin.)
Michael Shuman On Rebuilding Community: Local Economic Development
28/10/08 18:19
Attorney and economist Michael Shuman is the Vice
President for Enterprise Development for the
Training and
Development Corporation,
based in Bucksport, Maine. In
Part 1
of this candid interview, Mr. Shuman talks about
rebuilding local communities in the face of a world of
diminishing resources like oil and natural gas.
In
Part 2
he discusses his own conceptions of our current
economic development model and the problems small,
local businesses face. In
Part 3,
Mr. Shuman explores local (community-based) money and
stock exchanges (something that was more of the norm a
century ago) and helping small businesses reacquire a
foothold in a world that's increasingly -- and
unsustainably -- becoming over-globalized. Choose any
of the three video interview segments or listen to the
audio of the entire interview by clicking the links
below.
Michael Shuman is author of five books including The Small Mart Revolution and Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age. He has written numerous articles on the relationship between community and international affairs. His work has appeared in The Nation, The New York Times, Foreign Policy, and The Washington Post.
View video or listen to Mike’s interview
Michael Shuman is author of five books including The Small Mart Revolution and Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age. He has written numerous articles on the relationship between community and international affairs. His work has appeared in The Nation, The New York Times, Foreign Policy, and The Washington Post.
View video or listen to Mike’s interview
Economist Tom Greco: "reinventing money"
28/10/08 17:01
Community and monetary economist
Thomas H.
Greco, Jr.
gives a presentation in Sebastopol, California about
creating alternative currency and exchange systems.
Greco is also a writer, networker, and consultant, who, for almost three decades, has been working at the leading edge of transformational restructuring. A former college professor, he is currently Director of the non-profit Community Information Resource Center, a networking hub, which provides information access and administrative support for efforts in community improvement, social justice, and sustainability.
He is regarded as one of the leading experts in monetary theory and history, credit clearing systems, complementary currencies, and community economic development. He is author of many articles and books, including Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender (Chelsea Green, 2001).
Listen to the interview on GPM:
Greco is also a writer, networker, and consultant, who, for almost three decades, has been working at the leading edge of transformational restructuring. A former college professor, he is currently Director of the non-profit Community Information Resource Center, a networking hub, which provides information access and administrative support for efforts in community improvement, social justice, and sustainability.
He is regarded as one of the leading experts in monetary theory and history, credit clearing systems, complementary currencies, and community economic development. He is author of many articles and books, including Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender (Chelsea Green, 2001).
Listen to the interview on GPM:
Video: Boulder County Going Local! (Colorado)
28/10/08 16:54
Michael
Brownlee didn't stop after creating the Boulder Valley
Relocalization group. He's catalyzing
Boulder
County's Going Local! campaign,
encouraging residents to buy local first, eat and grow
local food, create local energy and local currency. The
community will celebrate at a "Renaissance of Local"
festival, conference and expo with a feast prepared by
the local Slow Food group. Episode 66.
Janaia Donaldson hosts Peak Moment, a television series emphasizing positive responses to energy decline and climate change through local community action. How can we thrive, build stronger communities, and help one another in the transition from a fossil fuel-based lifestyle?
watch the video:
Janaia Donaldson hosts Peak Moment, a television series emphasizing positive responses to energy decline and climate change through local community action. How can we thrive, build stronger communities, and help one another in the transition from a fossil fuel-based lifestyle?
watch the video:
Berlin: The local money is much prettier...
28/10/08 16:50
| If you don't like
your money, why not make some of your own?
Ethan Lindsey reports on regional currency in
Berlin, a colorful alternative to the euro that
also gives back to the community.
|
The greenback, you might say, is a little green around the gills. Not to mention green with envy over all those pretty colors on European currency. But that doesn't mean everyone loves euros.
In the latest installment of our occasional series "The Color of Money," Ethan Lindsey reports some Europeans are taking matters into their own hands.
ETHAN LINDSEY: At an upscale coffee shop on Berlin's Unter Den Linden Boulevard, American Christina Cocadiz sips an overpriced coffee. She bought it, of course, with euros.
But when she lived here five years ago, Cocadiz wasn't sure Germans would ever get used to the single, unified currency of the European Union.
CHRISTINA COCADIZ: People would like, pay with Deutschmark and then would get euros back, or try pay with euros and accidentally say "Deutschmark." That happened a million times the first month.
European businesses have embraced the euro -- they love its strength and stability. And tourists find it handy -- no need to pay a money-changer every time you cross the border.
But many Germans still haven't made peace with the new currency or the new world it represents. In fact, all over the continent, Europeans have begun printing alternative currencies of their own.
They're often called "regional money." And so far, there are about 100 varieties.
Susanne Thomas is an engineer who started one of the most successful. It's called "The Berliner." (read the article)
Germans take pride in local money
28/10/08 16:47
|
|
By Tristana Moore BBC News, Magdeburg,
Germany The next time you venture out for lunch in Magdeburg, check what kind of loose change you have in your wallet. |
The local banknotes are issued at a rate of 1:1 to the euro
Like any other city in Germany, the normal currency here is the euro. But bizarrely, they also have another currency in circulation: the Urstromtaler.
Before you doubt its existence, it is not "Monopoly" money - it is very real. At a jewellery shop in the city centre, Gerfried Kliems explained how people use the regional currency.
"It's quite simple," he said. "The money you spend stays in the region. When I accept Urstromtaler in my shop, I then have to see how I can spend the local banknotes. You get to know everyone who's participating in this project, and at the end of the day, you have a good feeling about life." (read the article)
More than 200 businesses are using the regional currency, including shops, bakeries, florists, restaurants. There is even a cinema which accepts Urstromtaler.
Local Money Strengthens Communities
28/10/08 16:43
Groups
stem the flight of capital from their towns and help
small businesses through local currencies.
by
Dave Block
FEDERAL currency was in short supply during the Great Depression, so local banks, stores, town governments and others with initiative issued their own scrip. In Springfield, Massachusetts, the publisher of the Springfield Union News, Samuel Bowles, began to pay his employees in scrip redeemable at local stores, which used it to pay for advertisements in the newspaper. Seeing Bowles regularly and knowing his character, locals developed more confidence in his dollars than federal money, which helped the Springfield economy stay relatively healthy during those hard times (Lire l’article)
FEDERAL currency was in short supply during the Great Depression, so local banks, stores, town governments and others with initiative issued their own scrip. In Springfield, Massachusetts, the publisher of the Springfield Union News, Samuel Bowles, began to pay his employees in scrip redeemable at local stores, which used it to pay for advertisements in the newspaper. Seeing Bowles regularly and knowing his character, locals developed more confidence in his dollars than federal money, which helped the Springfield economy stay relatively healthy during those hard times (Lire l’article)
"Open Money", entretien avec Jean-François Noubel
28/10/08 16:39
Propos recueillis par Mélik N’Guédar,
lundi
21 juillet 2008
De la même façon que le micro-ordinateur a donné leur autonomie informatique à toutes les unités humaines (maisons, entreprises, écoles, institutions...) et que les technologies vertes promettent de leur donner une autonomie énergétique (solaire, éolien, géothermie, etc.), voilà qu’arrivent les monnaies libres (« open money »), censées donner à chacun son autonomie monétaire. En termes techniques, après la généralisation de l’html (protocole informatique qui permet à n’importe quel ordinateur de se brancher sur internet) et de l’http (langage universel du web) qui ont transformé chaque citoyen planétaire en émetteur/récepteur d’informations (au moins potentiel), préparez-vous au prochain protocole du world wide web : appellons-le provisoirement htxx. Grâce à lui, chacun pourra bientôt devenir émetteur/récepteur de monnaies - ce qui va métamorphoser l’économie et la société, mais aussi nos vies et nos esprits. (lire la suite)
De la même façon que le micro-ordinateur a donné leur autonomie informatique à toutes les unités humaines (maisons, entreprises, écoles, institutions...) et que les technologies vertes promettent de leur donner une autonomie énergétique (solaire, éolien, géothermie, etc.), voilà qu’arrivent les monnaies libres (« open money »), censées donner à chacun son autonomie monétaire. En termes techniques, après la généralisation de l’html (protocole informatique qui permet à n’importe quel ordinateur de se brancher sur internet) et de l’http (langage universel du web) qui ont transformé chaque citoyen planétaire en émetteur/récepteur d’informations (au moins potentiel), préparez-vous au prochain protocole du world wide web : appellons-le provisoirement htxx. Grâce à lui, chacun pourra bientôt devenir émetteur/récepteur de monnaies - ce qui va métamorphoser l’économie et la société, mais aussi nos vies et nos esprits. (lire la suite)
