In a world where content is given away for free, how do you make money? Newspapers are struggling in world where news is available for free online. The music industry, Hollywood and a number of other makers of content are feeling the pain of having their content freely distributed by 'fans'.

Mike Masnick has finished a his series of posts on the economics of Free. The central thesis is simple: In the past there was a cost associated with producing music tapes, videos or newspapers. The consumer paid for this cost. Digital distribution mean there is zero cost in producing new copies of the content. This means the 'thing' that people are willing to pay for has shifted. People will now pay £350 for an iPod and free music, whereas in the past it would be ridiculous to think you'd pay more than £40 for a Walkman. The key is in recognising which elements of the experience have scarcity, i.e. there is a limited supply of. Physical goods, such as iPods and CDs are scarce. Digital content is easily copied, so is not scarce.

The theory is compelling. Media companies across the world will need to face these challenges; I suspect the those that are most capable of creating scarcity in the way they distribute content will win big.

Author of the Long Tail, Chris Anderson is proposing that everything that is free will become paid products, while everything that is paid for will become free.

While I don't quite agree with what he suggests, I can see his point: movies, music, newspapers - these are all becoming free content in the digital age.

However, I can't imagine that people will now start paying for free-to-air video and audio. Why would people move away from free to paid-for unless there is some compelling reason to start actually paying for these things?

Harvard Business School has written a case study on Wikipedia. The article describes some of the social practices that take place in the Wikipedia community.

Research indicated that many people around the world contributed content to Wikipedia and that this initial content was then refined over time by a relatively small group of editors.

This seems to suggest that initial contributions are a stimulus around which a group of people form. The result of the collaboration of this group is to arrive at a new Wikipedia article.

in August of 2006 the Wikimedia Foundation had only five full-time employees

An amazing statistic that defies the substantial amounts of money that some companies can spend in moderating and maintaining forums. How is this achieved? Largely by the fact that anyone can edit the Wikipedia entries. Well understood processes, such as AfD (article for deletion) and RfA (request for adminship), are used to make decisions. Although these are lengthy and time consuming, these ultimately result in greater engagement of users to the Wikipedia site. In fact, the extent of this engagement is sometimes to the detriment of the original reason people join the site - to create articles:

Nicholas Carr: three high-ranking Wikipedians... describe Wikipedia's increasingly complex governance structure, from its proliferation of hierarchical roles to its "career paths" to its regulatory committees and processes to its arcane content templates. We learn that working the bureaucracy tends to become its own reward for the most dedicated Wikipedians: "Creating fewer articles as time goes on seems fairly common as people get caught up in the politics and discussion rather than the editing."

That contents of articles are debated has other negative consequences too - it deters real experts from contributing to the site:

Larry Sanger: nearly everyone with much expertise but little patience will avoid editing Wikipedia, because they will—at least if they are editing articles on articles that are subject to any sort of controversy—be forced to defend their edits on article discussion pages against attacks by nonexperts.

Despite possibly deterring experts, Wikipedia does however seem to be sufficiently accurate as an Encyclopedia.

In late 2005, the scientific journal Nature, the top-ranked science journal, conducted a study comparing the accuracy of science entries in Wikipedia and the online version of Encyclopedia Britannica. The research involved examining the same set of 42 science articles from each reference work. It revealed that Encyclopedia Britannica had 123 errors while Wikipedia had 162 (for averages of 2.9 and 3.9 errors per article).... most readers simply want to know whether a source can generally be relied upon. What these results say to me is that Wikipedia isn't bad in this regard.

Wikipedia has defied critics and has worked as a concept: an Encyclopedia created through the collaboration of normal people. Part of the reason for its success is likely to be due to the way in which the site has maintained the interest and attention of it's contributors - through roles, processes and policies that engage users in discussion .

I have spent over 6 months in Bangalore looking at how we could get our operation over there significantly more productive than it had been in the the 9 months to then. Before I arrived in Bangalore, everything seemed to be black and white. Now everything seems like shades of grey.

A key ingredient that we lacked 6 month ago was an experienced and talented team in India. I inherited a team of graduates, termed freshers in India. We now had some of the experience and talent that is crucial, but today I realised that this is still not enough.

The developers in India had created a specification and design document for a test harness they intended to build. When the document came to the UK for review, a few emails were exchanged and all seemed happy on the surface. A little further digging when I saw the UK reviewers face to face showed that they felt the entire approach was wrong - this much was not clear from the email discussions. Even with the brightest people working for us in India, it was still possible for misunderstandings to creep through between people and what is intended for the work. When the different people involved do not know each other, people can find it easier not to communicate than to make the effort to do so.

Going forward, the managers in India and UK need to encourage more interactive communication between the teams - particularly through phone and video conferencing. Greater mutual involvement and inclusion of senses, like sight and sound, can only increase familiarity between the two parties involved. If we can get both sides feeling like they are on the same team, they will be more willing to support each other through each other's mistakes.

I first started considering getting an MBA in the Summer of 2006, after realising that I needed to learn a lot more about business if I was going to realise my dreams of starting a successful company. In March 2008 I sat the GMAT after a haphazard canceled attempt 10 months earlier. I applied to Harvard, MIT Sloan, Stanford and Wharton in the Fall of 2008, thinking that I had a fair chance of admission at these schools. I was wrong. Thankfully, I had also added to the short-list a school that I really liked and, as they say in MBA lore, is a good fit - Kellogg. I was admitted to Kellogg in December 2008. These blog posts chart that journey and beyond.


Advice

Application Advice:

• the GMAT
  
• my advice on the application process and 5 more tips 
• That Stanford question: "what matters to you most and why?" (1) (2)
• my essay reviewers

• developing a plan for entrepreneurship at business schoo
• starting a business at/after business school
  
• European VS American MBA considerations
• Kellogg's differentiators
  
• tips from Kellogg alumni on the Kellogg MBA
  

• Philip Delves Boughton (1), (2) ; info session, stats ; a Harvard alumnus banters
• draft essays done ; almost mistaken submission ; application submitted ; no interview invite ; denied
  

• application form ; draft essays done ; application submitted ; interview invite ; interview ; admitted
• researching Kellogg and finances ; psychological affect of Kellogg admission ; contemplating Chicago weather
• getting ready for Kellogg's admit weekend, DAK ; Kellogg admit weekend ; Kellogg VC/PE conference
  
• anticipating KWEST service trips 

• info session, stats ; entrepreneurial strengths
  
• working on essays ; draft essays done ; application submitted ; no interview ; denied admission

• application submitted ; denied 

• entrepreneurship information 
• draft essays done ; application submitted ; waiting for Wharton interview invite ; Wharton interview invite ; interview ; denied admission

• school visit ; entrepreneurship event impresses 
• thinking about Round 2

• starting preparation for the GMAT
• what top scorers say they did
• materials used by these scorers
  

• the importance of verbal in GMAT
  
• study tips from the 700+ scorers 
  
• enlightenment
  

• overcoming silly mistakes on the GMAT
  
• completed GMAT

• determining career goal (1) (2)
• shortlisting schools

• planning applications
• recommender questions angst
• organizing transcripts
• working on essays

• online application form confusion
• working on essays
• schools open applications
• have i written this essay before?
• Olympic distractions
• bugs in online application forms

• lacking adrenaline 
• depression
• banking crisis, draft essays done
• HBS, MIT info presentation, stats 
• my essay reviewers

• Wharton application submitted 
• Harvard almost mistaken submission
• applications submitted
• Kellogg interview invite
• Kellogg interview
• worrying about exchange rates 
• waiting for Wharton interview invite 

• the experience of others applying 
• thinking about Round 2 
• moaning about student readers, who read applications 
• no Harvard interview invite
• Wharton interview invite 
• lots of "dings" across the blogosphere
  
• Wharton interview 
• selling my MBA research materials

• considering Seth Godin's "alternative MBA"
• waiting for admit decisions
  
• no MIT interview; doubts over the need for an MBA
• admitted to Kellogg 
• denied by MIT & Wharton 
• developing a plan for entrepreneurship at business school 
• researching Kellogg & finances 

• opening a US dollar account
• horoscope reading makes me thankful
  
• psychological affect of Kellogg admission 
• denied by Harvard and Stanford 
• contemplating Chicago weather
• getting ready for Kellogg's admit weekend, DAK 

• Kellogg admit weekend 

• retrospecting on the admissions process, here  and here
• anticipating KWEST service trips
  

• student visa application 
• visa interview
• pondering over debt
• featured in Best of Blogging rankings

• sentence correction rant
• should girls be admitted to b-school?
• a Harvard alumnus banters
• exchange rates
• the experience of others applying
• moaning about student readers, who read applications
• does an MBA count towards the 10,000 hours to success?
  
• European VS American MBA considerations