Chris Anderson, the Internet wunderkind, visionary, and author of The Long Tail, an insightful book about how the Internet opens up niche marketing and sales opportunities, has release his new book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price. I was in Border's this morning looking in vain for a book about lemming journalism because of the recent ECUSA debacle wherein every major news outlet got the story dead, stinking wrong, when I noticed Anderson's new book. After reading the dust jacket and thinking, "Meh, another visionary book with no practical application in the real world...", I turned it over and noticed the price. Free! Kidding. It was $26.99. Hey, Chris, maybe practice what you preach? I know we need visionaries to lead us forward, but I'm weary, in the wake of the newspaper death dance, of hearing about how information wants to be free. Information doesn't want shit. It has no wants. People want it to be free, except those of us called writers who actually have to compile the stuff.
Chris' book actually was available for free in Kindle format. I downloaded it to my iPod Touch but haven't cracked it yet.
Posted by: Zossima | July 30, 2009 at 02:15 PM
Some things are "freer" than others:
http://www.vqronline.org/blog/2009/06/23/chris-anderson-free/
Oopsie.
Posted by: Benjamin | July 30, 2009 at 02:40 PM
Yeah, that's really over the top. I've flunked students for very simple violations. I'd say Anderson would need to be expelled. But in the grown-up world, apparently, nobody cares...
Posted by: Zossima | July 30, 2009 at 05:36 PM
It's audio version is also a free download on itunes. Listening to it currently.
Posted by: Plano Michael | July 30, 2009 at 11:26 PM