The Era Of Free (or really cheap) Great Technology

Where to begin? How about blogging? With free accounts, Blogger instantly transformed a million regular people into publishers and got bought by Google. Movable Type, the free-but-not-open-source content management software developed by Mena and Ben Trott for users with their own web hosting provisions, is the foundation of their business, Six Apart, and is the source and wellspring of most of its paid products.

How about photography and video? Digital cameras didn’t seem to get much cheaper (even the cheap ones are about $200), but Flickr got bought by Yahoo! probably for many of the reasons Google bought Blogger. A free tier of service (which, for most people, is probably just like its Pro tier), a great interface and millions of users. Photos are content, true, but try Flickr’s Camera Finder and tell me that Yahoo! isn’t trying to sell its users those cameras. And while Google didn’t (try to? want to? need to?) buy Flickr, but they sure did buy YouTube, even if it meant partially cannibalizing repurposing its own Google Video service. Both services allow uploads of user-created video, but YouTube wins for its interface and user base. And Hollywood snuggled up rather quickly, probably hoping for some of that iTunes halo effect to rub off.

Yes, iTunes, that free program that Apple develops for OS X and Windows which makes it so easy to download music into those shiny new iPods that are all the rage. A little different than the previous examples because of limited user-created content, true, but who ever thought Apple would be considered the leader of ANY market sector, much less that of digital music download sales AND digital music player sales?

And telephony anyone? Yes, I can hear you loud and clearly with my Skype account. Again, a free user-to-user tier of service, a pretty decent interface, millions of users - snatched up by eBay. It will be interesting to see how Skype phones develop into its own marketplace and work with celphones from the definitely-not-free mobile providers - and how eBay will take advantage of it.

Last in this abbreviated and incomplete list, but certainly not least, we turn to Google. Gmail is a revolution in free Web-based email; I’m sure Google Calendar isn’t too far behind. Consider that Google folds these two services along with Google Docs and Spreadsheets (free basic Microsoft Word-compatible word processing and Microsoft Excel-compatible spreadsheet software along with a pretty transparent layer of collaboration) to provide - voila! - Google Apps for Your Domain. All for free. And all connected to each other (thanks to the affinity of Gmail contacts) and to Google’s bottom line - its world-class search application. Sure, Google probably wants to sell some Minis and Search Appliances, but they know that the future of technology for the masses is free. And simmering over at Google Labs is a delicious stew of other great services like Google Reader, Google Bookmarks and Google Notebook just waiting to be added to the menu. No doubt about it - Google wants to be Your Operating System.

What do all of these free services have in common, besides working wonderfully in and/or with Firefox, that revolutionary web browser (and another great example of free software - just ask Google)? Okay, yes, they also require broadband Internet access and computer access and electricity, but besides that, I’d say they are similar in at least three important ways:

1. Every single one of the applications mentioned above are best in class due to its developers’ commitment to design and usability. People want to use applications that are intuitive and that look great. And people want to use their applications together (and sometimes with other people who might use other applications) without sacrificing any ease of use or the security of their personal information. We want it to work, work well and work every time. If not, we want you to roll out the red carpet to tell us why not and when we can expect it to work again. More often than not, adhering to web standards makes interconnecting APIs possible and easy for developers, but most of us don’t care HOW it works - we just want it TO work. And fast! People don’t mind paying for a great service, but we really want it for free.

2. Every single one of these applications is tied to a tangible product, either by creation or consumption, or both, but not the other way around. People read blogs, making them tangible products in and of themselves. And people have opinions about what they read. The very ability to sound off is also a tangible product because it is another mode of communication. People shoot pictures with cameras, celphones and laptops. Sometimes they like to share them with other people. And sometimes, people want to print those pictures. Or email them. People like to listen to music and sometimes like talking to other people. With celphones. Or not. People like to watch video on their iPods. Or their laptops. Or their TVs. Or not. People want the content they create/consume to be relatively easy to untether to whatever application they happened to use whenever they see fit. Online or offline. Keep your app interesting and on top of things and that might be never. Or not. Watch how convergence shows up and plays its expected role in all of this. Makes for interesting bedfellows, to say the least …

3. Each application realizes that, ultimately, you have paid (or will pay) for something. That old adage “You get what you pay for.” just doesn’t apply everywhere anymore. If you don’t want an iPod, buy a cheap USB mp3 player keychain instead. You can still use it with iTunes and your CD collection. Sure, maybe not as instantaneously as you could with an iPod, but you can with relative ease. Maybe you own a computer and want to upload your newest photos from your new camera to Flickr and then post blog entries about them to your Vox account? Or maybe you don’t own a computer at all? Still, you can’t underestimate the value of your personal data. Good software developers use this data to make their applications better. Satisfied with your city’s municipal Wi-Fi? Great, buy some more RAM or hard drive space, instead. Or a much larger (and now much cheaper) LCD monitor. Satisfied with the clarity of Gizmo Project or Skype and are always near free Wi-Fi? Get rid of your mobile provider altogether and get a Wi-Fi phone! Although most people will opt for some amalgamation of both free VoIP and paid WAP services, but it’s coming. And it’ll eventually be much cheaper to buy those phones. The point is that the cost for all of this stuff is coming down quickly. There will always be a supply and demand for luxury technology items just like there are luxury cars, but it doesn’t take luxury for most of us to get the job done, to get it done well and to get it done efficiently without burning even more of our planet’s resources. Or maybe our civilization is about to redefine what it means to be luxurious by erasing the implications of inaccessibility and exclusivity? I think Simon agrees with me, too.