Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Subscriptions: too much of a good thing?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

I don't see subscriptions quite the same way as Terry Freedman, who implies that creators have a right to get paid ("I wondered if, on the same basis, he expected supermarkets to let him have small bars of chocolate free, or small cups of coffee") because sometime work is performed for which there is no paying market, no matter how much effort it took (my singing also falls into that category). Still, I can see the day when I no longer have my day job where I might want to make some money from my work. But subscriptions just don't seem like the answer. As Freedman says, the barrier to entry today is quite low, which means there are too many people chasing too few dollars. He suggests "you had better be sure that you can  provide good content on a consistent basis, that offers fresh insight, or inside information that subscribers can't easily obtain elsewhere" but I doubt that this would be enough.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 21, 2024 8:47 p.m.

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