Creating value on top of free

Kevin Kelly: Better than Free suggests some ways in which publishers and authors could make money whilst giving content away.

It's an interesting article, and has some parallels with the idea of bands giving away what can be copied (songs) while charging for what can't be (gigs).

Kelly's argument has some bearing on the issue of open access to Cochrane Library. The Cochrane business model of selling content runs counter to its strategic aim of ensuring that every clinical decision is informed by best evidence. Worse though, the 'make our dough from publishing' approach actually gets in the way of more creative and sustainable approaches to income generation. When we were directors of the National Knowledge Service, my co-director and I wrote to Wiley to ask what value they added to the investment on many tens of milions of pounds made by the Department of Health in the production of Cochrane Reviews. The reply implied that the question was impertinent, that it was not really understood, but that we should rest assured that value was being added. It will be as hard for publishers as it is for the music industry to stop betting against the Internet.