ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED for SPARK – see it here
A few days ago I stumbled across an interesting pair of companion pieces: Malcolm Gladwell’s New Yorker review of FREE and Chris Anderson’s response to that review – Dear Malcolm: Why So Threatened? Read back to back, the two pieces make for an interesting, if disjointed, debate. Anderson has shrewdly tapped into (and consequently helped frame) an emerging and controversial debate over the future of business. Taking a page from Stewart Brand’s “information wants to be free”, the core observation of Anderson’s book is that the triple threat of ever cheaper processing, unlimited storage and increased bandwidth conspire to drive web based business models toward a no-cost formula. It’s a sexy premise and one that’s clearly in evidence all over the web. While I generally agree with the observations Anderson sets forth in FREE, I can’t help but find the premise worrisome. The present recession not withstanding, the information economy is in full swing all around us – and there are some troubling signs amidst its apparent success. The 24/7 media culture that started with the mainstreaming of cable television some twenty odd years ago has taken up full residence on the web. That’s hardly surprising given the role that cable providers had in helping to boost broadband subscriptions. With the proliferation of cheap ubiquitous internet access, the hucksterism many of us sought to steer clear of, by turning to the web, has increasingly become standard practice. Which raises a question very much at odds with FREE’s premise. What chance does ‘free’ on the web have of avoiding the ‘Buy one Get one Free’ culture that defines ‘free’ in big box culture? Many, including Anderson himself, believe that the meritocracy of the web will somehow help it circumvent a noisy future full of digital penny-saver equivalents and cash back coupons – but I for one remain doubtful. Sure, the web has a great history of fighting to maintain its neutrality but those days fueled by an academic altruism are fast receding. The popularization of broadband brought about through bundled cable packages and device offerings like the iPhone, the PalmPre and $300 Netbooks have introduced more and more consumers to the possibilities of the web. This surge in demand has helped fuel the web’s meteoric growth and made much of it easier to use, but this same influx has meant that the web has necessarily had to change, becoming increasingly reflective of the world beyond it. While much is made of the web’s ability to support a place for everyone and everything, recent events in China and Iran demonstrate that like all other broadcast media– the web can be manipulated and controlled. If that strikes you as paranoid think of it this way– control need not come from an organized nation-state, it can come from the passive censure of popularity and relativism. Within the fresh vision that FREE sets forth, resides a parochial soul: more stuff to more people for way less. That vision should inspire as it simultaneously cautions us. Given that the consumer in both the physical and digital world remains us, the dynamics that drive commerce are still dangerously subject to the same old same old: Business as Usual.