4 ms·

Fortunately for businesses that existed those last 5000 - 15 years, copying a document wasn't free. Information couldn't be mass produced at a scale that render

Fortunately for businesses that existed those last 5000 - 15 years, copying a document wasn't free. Information couldn't be mass produced at a scale that renders the notion of supply meaningless. Businesses now have to compete with open source or decentralized services that cut them out. When money enters the equation, people immediately start shopping, they start asking "Is this an expense that is necessary?" That plus the amount of uncertainty john q public has on transmitting money online (a reticence I share to be honest), makes paying small fees a large barrier to entry. Besides, if I've learned anything, I've learned that just because you paid a company money, doesn't mean they won't turn around and sell you up the river. The barriers of trust for a service that's free and non-free are exactly the same.

gurkendoktor 12y ago
I don't think copying documents is a good comparison, because on the scale of FB/Twitter, the cost of transmitting status messages and photos is certainly not 0 :) You can't get around bandwidth bills by using open source software.
- GhotiFish 12y ago
  Sorry. I realize the example was symplistic, I was trying to illustrate the way computers have changed and undermined an old information economy. I didn't mean to imply it was the only way it changed that information economy. You can get around bandwidth bills through distribution. open source is very good at that.
hyperbovine 12y ago
> Fortunately for businesses that existed those last 5000 - 15 years, copying a document wasn't free. Information couldn't be mass produced at a scale that renders the notion of supply meaningless. Google and Facebook are not in the document copying business. They index, curate, store and generally make information easy to access. That's a real service which costs real money to offer, and is not going to be just spontaneously overtaken by some FOSS equivalent (whatever that even means). And they could charge real money for it, if they wanted. Personally I would welcome that opportunity if it meant they would treat me more like a customer and less like an ad demographic.
- GhotiFish 12y ago
  There are distributed social networking systems that have being experimented with. HN has stories showing off a few of them. Facebook has real competition from people who don't have data aggregation or advertisement agendas. Barriers to entry for these tools are: the technical expertise to setup and run the programs (which is low low low, but still enough), and the obvious lack of users to give the system meaning.

gurkendoktor 12y ago

I don't think copying documents is a good comparison, because on the scale of FB/Twitter, the cost of transmitting status messages and photos is certainly not 0 :) You can't get around bandwidth bills by using open source software.

GhotiFish 12y ago
Sorry. I realize the example was symplistic, I was trying to illustrate the way computers have changed and undermined an old information economy. I didn't mean to imply it was the only way it changed that information economy. You can get around bandwidth bills through distribution. open source is very good at that.

hyperbovine 12y ago

> Fortunately for businesses that existed those last 5000 - 15 years, copying a document wasn't free. Information couldn't be mass produced at a scale that renders the notion of supply meaningless. Google and Facebook are not in the document copying business. They index, curate, store and generally make information easy to access. That's a real service which costs real money to offer, and is not going to be just spontaneously overtaken by some FOSS equivalent (whatever that even means). And they could charge real money for it, if they wanted. Personally I would welcome that opportunity if it meant they would treat me more like a customer and less like an ad demographic.

GhotiFish 12y ago
There are distributed social networking systems that have being experimented with. HN has stories showing off a few of them. Facebook has real competition from people who don't have data aggregation or advertisement agendas. Barriers to entry for these tools are: the technical expertise to setup and run the programs (which is low low low, but still enough), and the obvious lack of users to give the system meaning.