Changing Way

To start, we need to describe the semantic web. Definition: an evolving extension of the World Wide Web in which the meaning of information and services on the web is defined. When confronted with that, my brain flees to the comforting world of comics and to comfort from Sidney Harris. Thus calmed, it might be able to cope with video of someone far more semantically sage than I am: so I append a video of Tim Berner-Lee to this post.

For a concrete example, consider the word free. The languages and tools of Web 2.0 (or whatever number we’re up to now) are blind to the distinction between ‘zero price’ (gratis) and ‘freedom’ (libre). So the web itself cannot resolve the ambiguity.

The semantic web is the miracle that occurs between using the word free and having the web understand it. It’s the miraculous (to me) thing in some future cloud that enables me to write, without laborious distinction-drawing, one post about WordPress being free because it costs me no money to blog using it, and another about WordPress being free because I have the right to read, modify and distribute the source code.

One of the things I can do while waiting for the semantic web is to tag my posts. For example, when I’m writing about WordPress as free software (free as in freedom, free as in libre, etc.) I can use the tag opensource. Yes, I am aware of the argument that “Open Source” misses the point of Free Software. But opensource is effective because people looking for blog posts or other web content on free software may well, however grudgingly, search for the term/tag.

When it comes to the other sense of free (as in beer, as in gratis), I wish there was a tag likely to be as effective. I would welcome suggestions for a tag to indicate that I’m posting about free in this sense. And no, I’m not offering a cash prize for the best suggestion.

Now, to top off the tasty multimedia semantic sandwich, here’s Sir Tim.

It’s not yet March (check time: yes, we have another 23 minutes of this extra day of February, or at least, we did when I started this parenthesis), but I will state that the word of the year for 2008 is free. That’s free, not as in freedom, but as in $0.00.

Chris Anderson has just published an article in Wired explaining Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business. It’s a preview of the book he’s writing. As I’ve previously noted, the book won’t be out until 2009. I don’t know what the word of 2009 will be.

So back to the word of 2008: free. That’s how much I’ll charge you for these links.

• Glyn linked to…
• Mike at TechDirt, who linked to…
• a trendwatching report on the ongoing rise of ‘free stuff’, which has a silly title.
• Neil Gaiman explained why he likes giving things away: including, and especially, the books from which he makes a living.
• Harlan Ellison takes a rather different view, as you can see from the video posted by Paul DiFi.
• Rather less colorful, but equally contrarian in this year of free, are Alex Iskold’s warning about The Danger of Free, and his advice to Beware of Freeconomics.

Much though I consider Harlan and Alex to be worth reading, I find my own views to be closer to those of Neil and Chris.

Kevin Kelly’s post Better Than Free has received much linkage. Nothing new here, sniffs Glyn. I think that’s a little harsh.

Kevin identifies and discusses eight things that are better than free (gratis, free of charge, that is, not free as in freedom). For example:

Patronage — It is my belief that audiences WANT to pay creators. Fans like to reward artists, musicians, authors and the like with the tokens of their appreciation, because it allows them to connect. But they will only pay if it is very easy to do, a reasonable amount, and they feel certain the money will directly benefit the creators.

Many of us are better off not believing in a free trial offer that demands a credit card number. The free trial may well cost money. I’m not thinking of out-and-out fraud, although I’m sure that does happen.

I’m thinking mainly of the case in which we forget to cancel the service, even though we don’t use it. This most recently happened to me with eMusic.

There’s also the case in which the firm, in error, charges the card when it shouldn’t. Something similar to this happened to me with Zipcar. A couple of phone calls fixed the problem, until it recurred a few months later.

So, when my new MP3 player (on which, more soon) came with a free trial of Audible.com, and the trial required a credit card number, I decided not to spend the time - and, perhaps, money - using the free trial.

Joe Wickert, publishing executive and blogger, pointed out today that many authors and publishers are still concerned about potential cannibalization when book content is also available for free online, but that such concern is excessive. He drew on evidence from a recent NY Times article: Turning Free Web Work Into Real Book Sales.

Joe started blogging at the insistence of Shel Israel and Robert Scoble, as a condition of Wiley publishing their book Naked Conversations. That book was written on the blog of the same name (or rather, on the blog that used to bear that name).

His post was timely for me, since I intend to write a book next year, or at least, to write a book proposal in the early part of next year. It reminded me that the book should have its very own blog, and soon. The book in question will be about management, but it’ll be interesting and otherwise readable.

Also timely was an entry in the WordPress.com forum from Mark, Support Maven at Automattic. Advertising your own book is allowed at WordPress.com. It’s one of the few cases in which advertising is allowed on WordPress.com blogs. So that’s the likely site of my book blog.