Enough with the free crap, make stuff worth paying for

If there is one word I really want to see run out of town it is free. It is a word that has created an extremely lopsided view of what the concept of value means in our Web 2.0 world. The idea that we would be able to feast at the table of top notch web (and to a certain point desktop) software that could be supported; and show a profit (sometimes obscene profits), by straight advertising is showing itself to be the ultimate ponzi scheme.

In turn for our flocking like headless chickens to every new web service that came along what did we really get in exchanged?

We got applications that we invested time and energy in, come to rely on, only to have them disappear with all our data or just plain disappear. We get autocratic social media fiefdoms where without any warning you can find yourself thrown outside the gates of these so-called transparent and open data farms disguised as your best friend. We get contextual advertising constantly bombarding us in these free apps that is far from being contextual. We get deluded into believing we are somehow important because we have been invited into participating in using beta software; which most of the time any real developer would be embarrassed to even call alpha quality software; but is designed to get those ad dollars rolling in as soon as possible.

While some smart bloggers are writing how venture capital money is on a straight downward decline others are suggesting that this people behind all this venture capital are starting to run scared. At the root of either of these things is the fact that the advertising model of supporting software is crashing; and in some cases crashing hard. In the process the basic fallacy of the whole Web 2.0 ethos of free is being shown to world as the newest wardrobe of the emperor that it is – empty of value.

Where this idea of free falls down on its knees is expectation. When we actually pay out our hard earned cash on something we have certain expectations. With real world products and services we expect that product to work within in certain parameters – whether those parameters be set by the manufacturer of the product / service or if they are set by government regulation. In the online Web 2.0 world however we have willingly lowered our own expectations because we are getting something for free.

We have willingly said that we will accept extended periods of product or service downtime. We have willingly accepted handing over our data on a day to day basis because we are getting something for free. We have willingly agreed to use software that is just okay because we are getting something for free. We have willingly accepted the idea being foisted upon us; consumer and producer alike, that our data, our ideas, our content aren’t worth anything more than being gist for their advertising money mill all because we are getting something for free. We have also let ourselves be conned into believing that the most precious commodity we have – our time – isn’t valuable because we are getting something for nothing.

The interesting thing here is that in this movement consumers; and to a large degree the producers, have become faceless entities whose only value is the data that they can produce and the more copious the better. The web companies behind this con job don’t care about the individual – they only care about the aggregate. Just keep quiet and keep producing all those tweet, uploading all those pictures and poking people and you’ll be fine. The moment that you raise your head above the faceless crowd though you can find your account suspended, pictures deleted forever or locked out of the Web 2.0 world. The common feeling at that point is oh well it wasn’t costing me anything so why worry about it.

What about your time?

What about your data that is still a part of that aggregated pot of gold at the end of the start-up rainbow?

It doesn’t matter, because we got all that stuff for free. However once you bring money into the equation things change and those things that we have been lead to believe don’t matter because we were getting something for nothing suddenly do matter. When you hand over your money suddenly uptime isn’t just a oh well we’ll do the best we can matter. Suddenly just arbitrarily deleting a persons data takes on a whole new meaning. Suddenly terms of service are something that can be challenged. The expectation of responsibility changes once money changes hands. Reputations mean more once you include a sense of real tangible consumer cost into the mix.

Where companies could once slough off responsibilities because the word free, or beta, or alpha, or by invitation only are in the header graphic of some web service they are finding a whole new set of rules they will have to live by. This creates a problem for anyone wanting to start up some new service or make users want to use an existing one. the first question anyone asked when wanting to use something new is – is it worth spending my money on – and in most cases I would strongly suggest this isn’t the case. As well those beta, alpha or invitation slap together services have to hit the ground running with a much more reliable and better feature set than if they were hiding under the free moniker like they do now.

Does this mean the downfall of service like Twitter, FriendFeed or Facebook?

Nope because for some folks these types of services already fill a need that is worth paying for. For other folks this won’t be the case and probably never would be the case. However for those that it does fill a need or is able to meet the expectations of they will be a lot harder to keep happy because they are going to expect a certain level of quality and respect for the money they are paying. In turn though it also means that people will finally get what they pay for because so far this getting something for free isn’t looking like it is working out to well.

Reality sucks eh.