Attentionization

As noted in TechCrunch today, Contenture has launched a site that will hopelessly attempt to charge people for things that they seem to think are free.  I wish them luck, but the small blogs they will get to join aren’t enough to create a tipping point.

Actually I don’t think it will be entirely hopeless, but ‘Freemium’ systems count on some form of altruism which is not widespread.  MC Siegler, bucking the trend of those who believe everything should be free, has dipped his toe in the micropayments water a couple of times lately.  He seems to be hedging against the inevitable.

Let’s get one thing straight.  The only thing in life that is free is air.  Even water costs $1.25 a liter now.  Air is next.  But not before news and journalism on the web.

It’s only a matter of time until the people who pay for the bandwidth, salaries, coffee, etc. realize that they need to charge visitors and that display ads aren’t covering the nut.

Free content on the web is the last vestige of the deferred payment generation that got us into the sub-prime mortgage mess.  I love to flit about, reading all the news that is fit to steal, but I bet I would spend more productive time on other things if I knew it would cost me $.10 to read that stupid article about John and Kate.

I would be happy to ditch my paper copy of the NYT and have their website become a portal for me to savor the news of the world.