It’s not all about the Benjamins, is it?

October 27th, 2005
Author: DialogueMedia

Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow posted this morning about Revver, which is a service that lets people easily upload video for show, just like Flickr and smugmug do for images – with one hook. That hook is that the uploader/creator of the video has an opportunity to make some money off of the transaction. Obviously that’s going to be a motivator for some (though not all) to utilize Revver’s offerings.

All that being said, is the whole “Web 2.0″ community even about the money, or is it more about the ability to share stuff, do things through a Web browser that were only pipe dreams for some a decade ago, and the connection between people? A couple of days ago, Anil Dash was wondering about the fact that users of Flickr are subjected to advertisements on photographs they’re viewing – if the user doesn’t have a Pro account. But that fact wasn’t the primary driver behind Dash’s comments – it was the fact that none of those Google AdSense dollars (or pennies, as it were) ever trickled down to the publishers of the various photos seen on Flickr. I’ve got to ask – is it even about gaming the system, or making a buck on every single little thing? In my eyes, these are the same things that were discussed when many a blogger began putting various advertising units on their blogs, which then evolved into BlogAds, AdSense for bloggers, inline ads, adverposts, and more.

I’ve gotta say that anything that helps contribute to the well being (and wallet) of those who are making content and sharing photos, news, and information with the rest of us is great. But at the same time, most people I know who are interested in Flickr and other “sharing” sites are more interesting in how the whole “economy of visits” works and community aspect than they are worried about making a dime on it.

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  • Kohn Speeracy
    Its all about the money. Companies, developers, hosts - they all have their eyes and ears open to consumer behavior and where it is that they can turn a buck. To the consumer, Web 2.0 is about sharing and interacting with one another, but they do not realize that the means by which to do so are being controlled by big business with a hand out (so to speak). Just the other day a friend of mine (who works for big business) told me that they charged a customer some crazy cost to do some very simple work on a file - just because they could. The road to hell is paved with good intensions, so is Web 2.0. Good luck to you!
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