You may not care, but there are certain aspects to the content available on the WSJ.com that are either mildly scarce or at least hard to find from other sources. That is why WSJ.com is one of the rare news sites that has a reasonably sized subscriber base.
For people who live/breath within the financial and investment communities, the WSJ.com does have unique value. It is the casual WSJ.com visitors (you, me) who are not part of the close-knit community that Murdoch is apparently willing to lose.
When you state that "the lending is pretty limited", in what sense did you mean that?
From what I can tell, their lending implementation is better than what can be done in the world of paper-books in at least one aspect: When you lend the book to a friend, you still retain a copy that you're able to read. Hard to do with a paper-book.
Demanding that the devices and the BN.com bookstore be completely DRM-free sounds to me like a totally unreasonable demand. DRM is not, be definition, pure evil IMO. The support for ePub means millions of public domain books from multiple sources can be read, which is really quite amazing, IMO.
In general, this looks like a strong step in a good direction. I'm still a big user of audio books/audible.com, but if and when I do return to the printed word, it will most likely be in eBook form.
Although I will admit that the flow is not yet a flood, the sales figures cited by Amazon for the Kindle do support the claim that there are people out there that are very convinced.
I predict that it is largely a matter of time and refinement before paper-based books eventually fade away. It may take 2-3 decades, but the advantages are clear albeit not very cost competitive at this moment in time. But costs of the devices will start to drop sharply as competition increases (already seeing this) and usage increases (already seeing this too).
Enough already - just bought my tix for Oct 10th matinee
I think this is the third time you've raved about this one (if you include Twitter) - so I figured it just had to be the most amazing thing since sliced bread.
Heck yeah! Being smart and careful is just as effective as an AV package in most cases, and has a much smaller memory and performance impact on your PC.
Spent 10 days in and around the Paris city center, and in all that time managed to only find a single free (with password, obtained from staff, and only if you knew to ask for it) Wi-Fi network. Everything else was pay-only and locked down.
And interestingly, the % of Parisians at coffee shops with their laptops was at least an order of magnitude lower vs. the US. Laptopping over coffee is just not part of the culture, which probably keeps demand for free Wi-Fi below the threshold of most business owners.
This feels to me a bit like a tragedy of the commons situation: As long as reasonable quality investigative journalism is available for free, most people will avail themselves of that free resource. If that business model is in fact unsustainable, the providers of it will eventually fold. Over time, that unlimited free resource will become limited, thereby forcing the free-loaders to either:
1. Pay for the product they once obtained for free.
2. Find a new source that is still free
3. Go without the product
My feeling is that the market for investigative journalism needs another 3-5 years to reach a new level of homeostasis. In that time, we'll see plenty of death and rebirth.
The right bet to make would be that by then end of their year of charging, they will either have reverted to free or declared bankruptcy.
And I hope to see others take the Google challenge: Put up the Robots.txt blockade, and just see what happens. That should be good for some laughs too.
It appears as though Microsoft has acknowledged that in matters of software, using IP to prevent competition (or even mimicry) is a losing proposition. So they went ahead and changed their license agreement to specifically allow free and open-source implementations of their CLI and C# development tools.
But in other parts of the industry, threats of lawsuits against open source projects have been occurring for the last 4-5 years, IIRC.
This was a surprise indeed. CA needs all the business-friendly policies it can get right now, and this is a good step in that direction.
Heck, the combination of Amazon Prime (essentially free shipping) and no physical presence in the state (no sales tax) is what makes Amazon.com such an amazingly good deal for CA shoppers.
There is certainly some of that in every crowd. One solution that I like and have seen implemented elsewhere:
Charge reasonable fees for the ability to participate in the conversation, making it a premium service.
It can still be pseudo-anonymous (site visitors may not know who you are, while site operators do), but by charging a fee for what the users value - the feeling that they are interacting with the author n a meaningful way - you only get comments from people who are willing to put their money where there opinions lie.
On the post: Will Murdoch Kill The One Smart Part Of The WSJ's Paywall?
Re: You may not...
You may not care, but there are certain aspects to the content available on the WSJ.com that are either mildly scarce or at least hard to find from other sources. That is why WSJ.com is one of the rare news sites that has a reasonably sized subscriber base.
For people who live/breath within the financial and investment communities, the WSJ.com does have unique value. It is the casual WSJ.com visitors (you, me) who are not part of the close-knit community that Murdoch is apparently willing to lose.
I for one can't wait until he makes his move.
On the post: eBook Market Gets More Crowded... But... Still Many Limitations
Is the lending really all that "limited"?
From what I can tell, their lending implementation is better than what can be done in the world of paper-books in at least one aspect: When you lend the book to a friend, you still retain a copy that you're able to read. Hard to do with a paper-book.
Demanding that the devices and the BN.com bookstore be completely DRM-free sounds to me like a totally unreasonable demand. DRM is not, be definition, pure evil IMO. The support for ePub means millions of public domain books from multiple sources can be read, which is really quite amazing, IMO.
In general, this looks like a strong step in a good direction. I'm still a big user of audio books/audible.com, but if and when I do return to the printed word, it will most likely be in eBook form.
On the post: eBook Market Gets More Crowded... But... Still Many Limitations
Re: well, there are those who do...
I predict that it is largely a matter of time and refinement before paper-based books eventually fade away. It may take 2-3 decades, but the advantages are clear albeit not very cost competitive at this moment in time. But costs of the devices will start to drop sharply as competition increases (already seeing this) and usage increases (already seeing this too).
On the post: Connecting With Fans Via Live Theater As Well...
Enough already - just bought my tix for Oct 10th matinee
I hope you're happy now!
On the post: Fine, Let Newspapers Collude
Re: That would be copyright infringement....
On the post: Fine, Let Newspapers Collude
Another challenge I wish they would accept
Original Post on Google Blog: Google says use robots.txt
Use robots.txt to block the Google Crawler, and we promise to never refer traffic to you ever again! Has anyone taken the challenge? Dare they?
On the post: Crowdsourced, Cloud-Based Anti-Virus? Lots Of Buzzwords, But How Does It Work?
Re: Re:
On the post: The Death Of Paid WiFi
But Paris, France seems to be lagging
And interestingly, the % of Parisians at coffee shops with their laptops was at least an order of magnitude lower vs. the US. Laptopping over coffee is just not part of the culture, which probably keeps demand for free Wi-Fi below the threshold of most business owners.
On the post: James Boyle On: Strategies For The Digital Age: Beyond Mocking the Clueless
When the tragic commons is exhausted
1. Pay for the product they once obtained for free.
2. Find a new source that is still free
3. Go without the product
My feeling is that the market for investigative journalism needs another 3-5 years to reach a new level of homeostasis. In that time, we'll see plenty of death and rebirth.
On the post: Hulu Admits: Content Companies Boxee'd The PS3 Too
Re:
On the post: Hulu Admits: Content Companies Boxee'd The PS3 Too
Re:
On the post: Cargo Cult Science In The Newspaper World: If We All Charge, People Will Pay
Re: Good point
And I hope to see others take the Google challenge: Put up the Robots.txt blockade, and just see what happens. That should be good for some laughs too.
On the post: Artificial Scarcity Is Subject To Massive Deflation
Re: The new business model
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/26117/1090/
It appears as though Microsoft has acknowledged that in matters of software, using IP to prevent competition (or even mimicry) is a losing proposition. So they went ahead and changed their license agreement to specifically allow free and open-source implementations of their CLI and C# development tools.
But in other parts of the industry, threats of lawsuits against open source projects have been occurring for the last 4-5 years, IIRC.
On the post: California Promises No Sales Tax Due To Affiliates To Keep Amazon/Overstock Affiliates Happy
Hurrah for CA!
Heck, the combination of Amazon Prime (essentially free shipping) and no physical presence in the state (no sales tax) is what makes Amazon.com such an amazingly good deal for CA shoppers.
On the post: Free Does Not Mean No Business Model
The next time somone makes this mistake...
Then ask them whether or not they think Google has a business model.
On the post: The Conversation Is What Matters, From Learning To Journalism And Beyond
Re: Making it conversational
1. Easy to follow.
2. Simple to participate in.
3. Structured enough to be coherent.
However, I do think that there are technical solutions to many of those problems. Features such as
- auto notify me of replies to this thread
- well designed conversation visualization tools
- real-time 'reply posted' notifications, as in Gmail
Tools such as these make it much more satisfying to actually engage in longer more fulfilling discussions.
On the post: The Conversation Is What Matters, From Learning To Journalism And Beyond
Re: Moronic, stupid, ignorant
Charge reasonable fees for the ability to participate in the conversation, making it a premium service.
It can still be pseudo-anonymous (site visitors may not know who you are, while site operators do), but by charging a fee for what the users value - the feeling that they are interacting with the author n a meaningful way - you only get comments from people who are willing to put their money where there opinions lie.
On the post: Yet Another Journalism Professor Gets Nearly Every Fact Wrong In Saying Google Needs To Pay
For some background on the author
http://communication.stanford.edu/faculty/brinkley.html
On the post: Investigative Journalism Done Better, Faster And Cheaper Without Newspapers
Re: Myth 1 isn't completely true
In the pre-PR-age, did reporters mostly talk to company officers (board members, executives)?
On the post: Investigative Journalism Done Better, Faster And Cheaper Without Newspapers
Re: I see a problem...
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