Comments on: You Get What You Pay For (Or Not) http://www.nivi.com/blog/article/you-get-what-you-pay-for-or-not my personal blog Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:02:35 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Notes, links and conversation http://www.nivi.com/blog/article/you-get-what-you-pay-for-or-not/comment-page-1#comment-717 Notes, links and conversation Thu, 18 Aug 2005 10:51:09 +0000 http://www.nivi.com/blog/article/you-get-what-you-pay-for-or-not/#comment-717 <p><strong>Nivi on why people do things for free</strong></p> <p>Nivi would love to hear our thoughts on why people do things for free. Apart from the reasons he quoted, there's this one:</p> <p>For media companies, free content is a vehicle for advertising. For individual authors, free content or free code is a vehi...</p> Nivi on why people do things for free

Nivi would love to hear our thoughts on why people do things for free. Apart from the reasons he quoted, there’s this one:

For media companies, free content is a vehicle for advertising. For individual authors, free content or free code is a vehi…

]]> By: Pascal Van Hecke http://www.nivi.com/blog/article/you-get-what-you-pay-for-or-not/comment-page-1#comment-716 Pascal Van Hecke Thu, 18 Aug 2005 09:57:46 +0000 http://www.nivi.com/blog/article/you-get-what-you-pay-for-or-not/#comment-716 <p>In the media industry, free content is a vehicle for advertising.</p> <p>On the internet, free content or free code is a vehicle for the author's name and reputation.</p> <p>Companies also do the trick: MySql's free gpl-licensed database is the best marketing tool for the same product under a commercial license.</p> In the media industry, free content is a vehicle for advertising.

On the internet, free content or free code is a vehicle for the author’s name and reputation.

Companies also do the trick: MySql’s free gpl-licensed database is the best marketing tool for the same product under a commercial license.

]]> By: ~ http://www.nivi.com/blog/article/you-get-what-you-pay-for-or-not/comment-page-1#comment-702 ~ Wed, 17 Aug 2005 08:22:38 +0000 http://www.nivi.com/blog/article/you-get-what-you-pay-for-or-not/#comment-702 <p>Hey Nivi -- Some additional reasons people do work for free that I can think of -- in general, when the process is valuable in some other way.</p> <p>People work for free in order to learn something they want to learn, try something with less risk, receive free feedback (that they might have to pay for in some way otherwise), get a foot in the door (literally, or by putting something on a resume, or whatever), connect with other people who're into the same thing, get free work from others simultaneously, or when they benefit from the results of their own work, or benefit from / value what they contribute to. I don't think people who do it for these reasons would in general be producing particularly good or particularly bad work.</p> <p>There are probably internet examples of these you're more familiar with than I am, but to give a non-internet example, in the architecture field it's not unheard of (but it's increasingly frowned upon) to hire unpaid workers, who are willing to work for the experience. You could say that they're doing it because they love it, but they're also doing it in order to get paid to do the same thing later.</p> <p>Also, people enjoy more freedom when doing something Pro Bono (which they might, and often - in the examples I can think of - also do for pay, in another setting).</p> Hey Nivi — Some additional reasons people do work for free that I can think of — in general, when the process is valuable in some other way.

People work for free in order to learn something they want to learn, try something with less risk, receive free feedback (that they might have to pay for in some way otherwise), get a foot in the door (literally, or by putting something on a resume, or whatever), connect with other people who’re into the same thing, get free work from others simultaneously, or when they benefit from the results of their own work, or benefit from / value what they contribute to. I don’t think people who do it for these reasons would in general be producing particularly good or particularly bad work.

There are probably internet examples of these you’re more familiar with than I am, but to give a non-internet example, in the architecture field it’s not unheard of (but it’s increasingly frowned upon) to hire unpaid workers, who are willing to work for the experience. You could say that they’re doing it because they love it, but they’re also doing it in order to get paid to do the same thing later.

Also, people enjoy more freedom when doing something Pro Bono (which they might, and often – in the examples I can think of – also do for pay, in another setting).

]]> By: Motts McGregor http://www.nivi.com/blog/article/you-get-what-you-pay-for-or-not/comment-page-1#comment-492 Motts McGregor Tue, 02 Aug 2005 15:22:36 +0000 http://www.nivi.com/blog/article/you-get-what-you-pay-for-or-not/#comment-492 <p>I think you might find this a (useful albeit rather in-depth) partial answer to the issue of "why?" although not as much of the "how?" of "free".</p> <p>http://e-conomy.berkeley.edu/publications/wp/wp140.pdf</p> <p>-Motts</p> I think you might find this a (useful albeit rather in-depth) partial answer to the issue of “why?” although not as much of the “how?” of “free”.

http://e-conomy.berkeley.edu/publications/wp/wp140.pdf

-Motts

]]> By: Nigel Burke http://www.nivi.com/blog/article/you-get-what-you-pay-for-or-not/comment-page-1#comment-475 Nigel Burke Tue, 02 Aug 2005 09:13:38 +0000 http://www.nivi.com/blog/article/you-get-what-you-pay-for-or-not/#comment-475 <p>You may be interested in the current discussions at Dave Pollards blog</p> <p>href="http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2005/07/31.html#a1227"</p> <p>href="http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2005/08/01.html#a1228"</p> You may be interested in the current discussions at Dave Pollards blog

href=”http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2005/07/31.html#a1227″

href=”http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2005/08/01.html#a1228″

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