No, no, no. Keen argues that the bust is going to lead to the end of free publishing, because people will need money and will not want to publish content for free. This is not true. Instead, the bust will lead to an explosion of free media. The rationale: no one can afford to pay for media, and thus business strategies that use free media to sell other products will become even more valuable (there is also the issue of people having more time on their hands, and the fact that people tend to become MORE charitable when they lack wealth, paradoxical as that may seem). Admittedly I am biased, as this is the heart of my reality, and has been for the past few years. See my business reports, particularly my report on Publishing 2.0, for more. -- KM


Andrew Keen / Internet Evolution:
Economy to Give Open-Source a Good Thumping — When we think of the Great Depression, we imagine long lines of gaunt men, caps in hand, waiting for soup handouts. The equivalent photos of today's economic hard times — displayed for free, of course, on Flickr — may be represented by images …



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