Chris Anderson responds to Malcolm Galdwell's critique of Free on his blog, The Long Tail

The battle of pop sociologists just got a lot more interesting: in the latest issue of New Yorker magazine, Malcolm Gladwell does a fisking of Wired editor Chris Anderson’s new book “Free”, the book about the future of pricing and the value of IP (and by definition business models) in a digital world. Anderson’s iron law: “In the digital realm you can try to keep Free at bay with laws and locks, but eventually the force of economic gravity will win.” Gladwell’s main take: that free isn’t what everything is moving ...

Apple and Amazon are forging paid access models with applications and digital content that could generate enough revenue and market share to give Google ulcers. Apple's iPhone and iTunes and Amazon's Kindle are onto something very big. Their approach to making the digital future financially viable represents as much of a psychological break with rampant free content practices as a template for conditioning consumers to pay for relevant content and valuable applications, especially for mobile devices. Just as important, they dodge reliance on media advertising that will remain in flux as it evolves into interactive marketing and e-commerce. Read the ...

What is the changing face of gamers? If yesterday’s sweet spot used to be the geeky, single, 18-34 year old male with disposable income who played increasingly complex games on average 30-hours per week, then today’s demographic looks like the polar opposite: grandmotherly pensioners and pre-tweens snacking on casual portal games. From the very old to the very young, these “bookend” generations are changing the face of gaming and the business models at its core. There are all kinds of strange signs that gaming is changing. With the recent release of ...

On July 3, 2008, Google AdSense made the following announcement on its official blog: Earning revenue from YouTube videos just got easier We'd like to let you know about two recent improvements to video units that make them more easy and appealing to place on your sites. First, we've partnered with some new content providers that we'd like to highlight. These partners have signed on to let AdSense publishers embed their videos and share in the ad revenue. Broadbandtv: "Broadbandtv is partnering with YouTube to bring the very best video program lineup to a growing and engaged online audience. Broadbandtv ...