Fade to Play

On the Friday of VIDFEST, I attended the Creative Exchange Conference in which a variety of speakers in diverse areas of social media, crowdsourcing, alternate reality games, digital media, and social action among others presented. It was an all-day affair held at the Arts Club on Granville Island.





The opening keynote was by Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief, Wired Magazine. His presentation was entitled The Economy of ‘Free’. (see NowPublic for liveblogging by Jarrett Martineau.

Best-selling author of The Long Tail, Chris Anderson is one of the most knowledgeable, insightful and articulate voices at the center of the new economy. Join him at VIDFEST as he talks about the new economy of ‘free.’ As the marginal cost of digital information approaches zero, practically everything on the Web heads toward ‘free.’ How do you thrive when free has emerged as a full-fledged economy? Hear how Chris describes the new directions the economy is taking, names the central phenomenon, and gives you handles for the business opportunities they represent.

Chris Anderson - “Everything that can become digital will become digital. Everything that is digital will become free”


He gave a fascinating presentation beginning with King Gillette - “the patron saint of the free” who invented the disposable blade safety razor and developed a strategy in which he gave way razors for free knowing that people would need to purchase the disposable blades.

Chris Anderson - “In a competitive market price falls to the marginal cost”

He discussed the webmail dichotomy of gmail vs. yahoo, the freemium models that exist in video games (e.g. providing limited demos), and how YouTube emerged because steaming video is almost free, resulting in internet famous people like lonelygirl15.

Chris Anderson - “For the first time in history, complexity is free”

Relevance: I was interested in this presentation as I participate in this free culture by downloading the free single offered each week on iTunes or accepting free samples at Starbucks. It is a part of our culture. What I do wonder is when geographic restrictions will be lifted on the flow of free content online so that I can watch Heroes on NBC.com or live streaming of the Olympics on the BBC website.