Month: August 2005

Blogs, wikis, folksonomies, social networks, citizen journalists, photo sharing, file sharing, MP3 sharing, collaborative technology and napsterization – there seems to be a trend here. Online technology is centering on the exchange of data and information.
On “PostSecret”:http://postsecret.blogspot.com, people share their deepest, darkest secrets. On “Flickr”:http://www.flickr.com, people share their photos. On “LinkedIn”:http://www.linkedin.com, people share their business contacts. Pretty soon, there won’t be anything that remains unshared.
Traditional business isn’t about sharing. It’s about signing non-disclosure documents and protecting information. Any information that is to be made publicly available is carefully combed over by PR reps and then double-checked by corporate lawyers. Patents provide another barrier to protect information: the public has access, but can’t use it. Information can be sold, too. Newspapers now charge for online subscriptions. Business models for many information providers rely on paid subscriptions. It would be ludicrous to give it away.
Or would it?