The Seal of Approval

Well my time at university is being fruitful for my imagination. So far I have had about three different ideas for businesses and services and each one has got me really excited. I’d thought I should flesh out my latest one and share it with the world.

Personally I’m all for free culture. When I say free culture I mean the ability for producers and consumers to collaborate together and reap the mutual benefits of this collaboration. Mostly it’s the consumer who benefits as they get content for which they are then free to do what they want with. They can give it to their Mum, they can remix it and (most importantly) they can enjoy it without having an obligation to purchase it.

Producers have often had the raw end of the stick where most of them publish just for the love of doing it. I’ll be the first to admit that the possibility of making something for people to enjoy outshines financial incentives (which has often been proven in psychological studies) but that doesn’t mean people can make a living off creating free content. For quite a while people have been trying to capitalise on what they produce while still providing the consumers with the freedoms that Free Software or the Creative Commons offer and non of them have been particularly effective.

The problem lies with why should someone give you money for something you produce or free? The answer I propose is to replicate a traditional commerce system as much as possible. Quite a few people have tried out the “pay what you want” model. The effort was pioneered by musicians such as Radiohead where you would reach a purchase page and you could enter the value you wanted to pay for their album.

In effect the model imposes a non-obligation purchase where people can pay nothing at all but are put off by various elements, such as graphics, that make them feel wrong by not paying.

How can you be sure that people will pay? Simply because it has proven to be effective. The Humble Bundle deal has so far had over 100,000 downloads and has so far raised over $1,000,000. This is a great example of being open while still making money.

Currently I envisage a website that operates like Steam or iTunes but works entirely on the pay what you want model. People who create content can upload it to the site (and perhaps include charity donations in their revenue) and share what they create while creating a “guilt” barrier to earn them revenue. Once purchased, the site will organise and track their purchases and offer download links.

In effect it is a free ecosystem where both the producer and the consumer benefit.

Will draw up more mockups and stuff later. Keep tuned it.