Internet Publishing Models

OpenBusiness just found on Tim O’Reilly’s ever inspiring blog a reference to a paper he wrote in 1995. He wrote “In the old model, the information product is a container. In the new model, it is a core. One bounds a body of content, the other centers it.” This seems to be exactly the question so many are still tinkering with. If the physical container just becomes one possible version of the information product – a nicely bounded book for example – how do you create revenue through all the other forms it can have? Tim had soem good ideas back then and he points out something that should be obvious: we are less likely to pay for content per se, but for the way it gets delivered, aggregated and tailored to our individual needs. Should it not be obvious that an abundance of information creates a supply and demand curve in which the price approaches zero for an individual information good? Yet, if one solves to supply us with what we want, even if we do not know we want it, then this is model which will earn our attention. And this is what will be the key to creating profit. Linkback: http://radar.oreilly.com/tim/