Comments on: Are We Entitled to Free?

By: VA Survival Guide - Virtual Assistant Forums | Virtual Assistant Network

VA Survival Guide - Virtual Assistant Forums | Virtual Assistant Network — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:19:19 +0000

[...] recently read a post on the author's blog called 'Are We Entitled to Free?' that I think answers this question, thought I'd post it here as [...]

By: Geek Dads Weekly #20 – We’re Almost Legal!

Geek Dads Weekly #20 – We’re Almost Legal! — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 21:21:44 +0000

[...] Cinematic Titanic has a new release, and T. Marie Hilton asked, on her blog, the question, “Are We Entitled to Free?” We do our best to answer that. We finish up with some discussion about what’s been [...]

By: Daniel M. Clark

Daniel M. Clark — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:12:55 +0000

I think it does apply to newer users. I believe there to be two factors that contribute to it – first, popular major sites are still free (think Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Pandora), and second, even before someone opens their first web browser, they're still aware that “everything” online is free. Even those that haven't been online yet know what Google is, and they likely know that it's free. They hear people on TV or on the radio say things like “users of the free social media service Facebook…” – and those are adults. For kids who have been online since age 3 (like my daughter, now 4) they learn early that everything is free because the sites they're allowed to visit (PBSKids, NickJr) are free.

I'm on board with the idea of charging for content the same way that I'm on board with charging for a newspaper or a magazine. I don't think everything should be free because the content producers need to make a living. To me, the question is, is it too late to stop the “everything online is free” mentality? It's hard to do when everything* is, in fact, free.

(*not /everything/ but you get my meaning).

By: T.Marie Hilton

T.Marie Hilton — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:28:42 +0000

Hi Daniel, thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts in the conversation.
You make some valid points, and for long time Internet users I think that would apply. But does that same train of thought apply to the millions of users that are new to the online world?

By: Daniel M. Clark

Daniel M. Clark — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 20:10:06 +0000

I don't think that the expectation of free is a recent phenomenon. In fact, I think we can trace it back to the earliest days of Usenet and the early days of what would become the world wide web. The internet was at first an educational tool, and all one needed was access – students often got access for free. Usenet was always free, and early websites were all free. It was only after the web went commercial that this problem started… all of a sudden, some people wanted to charge for information or site access. A lot of people expect free because when it comes to the internet, that's quite literally always been the way of it.

I'm not saying it's right or fair, but that's my observation. If monetization and site access charges had been the norm from the beginning, I don't think we'd be having this discussion.

By: T.Marie Hilton

T.Marie Hilton — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 05:58:36 +0000

I always love it when you drop by Danny! And I wasn't aware of the promotion aspect at all, I had simply seen the post and the comments made there.

And different opinions and 'free' thinking is what makes life so much more interesting! How boring would it be if we all agreed all the time?!

By: Danny Brown

Danny Brown — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 02:04:28 +0000

I think most of the “disagreement” was with how his friend Chris Brogan positioned it. He'd tweeted about it being free; his blog post promoting it again promoted it as free. Chris has leveraged his community to put him in a position of trust, and maybe a few folks thought he'd misled them?

From the comments over on Chris's post, I don't think it was so much disappointment at “not getting something for nothing”, more that it had been built up to be something it wasn't. That, and the fact the video wasn't exactly earth-shattering – it didn't really sell the book to you.

But hey, we all have different opinions – and that's the beauty of “free” (thinking)

By: owengreaves

owengreaves — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:26:52 +0000

There's lots more where that came from, I'm a futurist at heart, I see things that will keep you thinking for a long while. I saw the link to this article on twitter, it grabbed my attention (the new currency) and I had to read it.

Keep up the good work.

By: T.Marie Hilton

T.Marie Hilton — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:54:18 +0000

Interesting points Owen, and definitely not something I had considered, so you certainly got me thinking. (I love it when my readers give me pause for thought!)
Of course as someone who loves to teach and help others, I would like to think it is worth something, and helpful to boot.

Great to see you stopping by!

By: T.Marie Hilton

T.Marie Hilton — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:39:20 +0000

Thanks Laurie,
I agree that regardless of this wave of entitlement to free that we're dealing with, there are always people out there that are going to recognize value when they see it and be willing to pay. I think my frustration comes from the number of virtual assistants that contact me looking for help in starting out or getting new clients that are unwilling to invest in items (not just my items btw) that would ultimately help them.
Always great to see you stopping by!