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07 Feb 2009 03:37 pm

Too Late

Walter Isaacson:

The key to attracting online revenue, I think, is to come up with an iTunes-easy method of micropayment. We need something like digital coins or an E-ZPass digital wallet — a one-click system with a really simple interface that will permit impulse purchases of a newspaper, magazine, article, blog or video for a penny, nickel, dime or whatever the creator chooses to charge.

I remember fantasizing about this several years ago. But it's is not going to work for the reasons Felix Salmon cites and because there is too much good content out there for free. Seth Roberts retorts:

...before occupational specialization came hobbies — skilled work done for nothing. The mental tendencies that led us to do hobbies are still within us.

And the web vastly lowers the costs of sharing the fruits of said hobbies with others. You can't monetize it all. But I, for one, am grateful for David Bradley. (Plus: we're doing pretty well with ads.)

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