Photo by: Jessica Shannon.Whoever manages to figure out how to make money off the internet, repeats one of my profs over and over again, is going to make a lot of it.
With the major shift to online media, I have no doubt that somewhere in there is a gold mine waiting to be struck. But I don't believe that Jaron Lanier's answer-that site should be set up so people pay for content-is feasible.
I read a good proportion of my media online. I have no online subscriptions. I don't pay for anything. I download music onto my iPod. I don't pay for any of that either. Sometimes I stream movies... for free.
And it's not that I don't mind paying for information-just when it's already available for free. Not to mention that I don't like spending hours staring at a computer screen-I'd rather pick up a newspaper/magazine.
Yet there is no doubt that contributors should be compensated.
Take a look at a standard print newspaper. Let's say the newspaper costs you $1. It cost considerably more than just a dollar to produce. But the paper is subsidised, mostly by advertising, and can therefore operate with below-production costs.
So, in the next few years, I think that rather than an increase of pay sites, we'll be seeing a restructuring of web-based advertisement and sales departments.
Not to mention that the internet seems to be eerily good at collecting statistical information on people.
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