Author: Christopher Carfi

(Background: "Free: Why $0.00 is the Future of Business" and "Steal This Slide:The Six Kinds of Free")

Maddie Grant has been thinking about what "free" means to associations, which have historically relied on membership dues to provide a sizable proportion of an organization’s annual revenue.  However, over the past thirty years, membership dues have continued to shrink in this regard.

(source: ASAE)

Membership dues have served multiple purposes, such as enabling discounts on other products that are offered by the organization, or enabling access to "members-only" information or services.  These dues help to fund the "mission" of the organization, whatever it may be. 

These dues also are a way to "value" the opportunity to join the community of like-minded individuals who are members of the organization.

In this context, Grant looks for analogs for each of the six kinds of free, and how they apply to her industry.  Grant asks:

Can these [six kinds of free] be translated to member services?

• Freemium – Free entry to online communities, charge for "premium" areas/functionality?
• Advertising – On websites, online communities, e-newletters, sponsorships?Cross subsidies – free initial access to articles, charge for distribution?
• Zero marginal cost – Webinars, podcasts, other e-learning modules?
• Labor exchange – Wikis?
• Gift economy – Any social object that promotes the association / donated labor or barter system?

(N.B. The more this comes up, the more it feels like the discussions that were heralded by Doc Searls circa 2004-2005 regarding blogs, and the different "monetization" models that were being applied to them.  The net of the ‘net: you will likely make money because of something you’re doing, rather than with it.  More on this here.  And a the seeds of the "because effect" were sown here.)

Back to the point above, the one about membership dues being a way to "value" the opportunity to join a community of like-minded individuals who are aligned around a particular mission or affinity.  Does that model still work?  With ambient "community" showing up, well, in practically every system or business plan that is being created, is there value in tithing when an individual can simply find others with similar interests via blogs, or even on Facebook or LinkedIn?  (I don’t have an answer to this quandary and am hoping others with opinions will weigh in via the comments.)

So what about your business?  If your "traditional" revenue stream began to tend to free, how would you make money?

Ok, maybe I’m showing some Chicago-roots regional bias.  🙂

This is actually a very cool visualization.  What do you call it?

Via: Strange Maps

Cannes short film award winner, on the power of words: http://tinyurl.com/5t4dr8 .  Worth a viewing.

On Saturday, we created a mobile resource guide for those affected by Gustav, as many in the path of the storm would not have internet access.  As people begin returning home and begin the process of rebuilding after nearly $8billion in damage, we hope this mobile resource guide will aid the Hurricane Gustav relief efforts. 

There are three versions of the Gustav Mobile Resource Guide available:

• For iPhone
• For Mobile (including the Nokia N95 and BlackBerry)
• For Your Blog (just click "Get Widget" at the bottom of the widget on this page)

The guide offers quick access to…

News – Minute-by-minute updates from government agencies and citizen journalists.

Info – Quick references for how to help.

People and Shelters – Searchable self-reported listings of shelters, resources, aid providers, and evacuees.

Raise awareness about the relief efforts by adding this guide to your blog sidebar. Stay connected to the latest info by bookmarking it in your iPhone or other mobile device.

Mobile version

 

Widget version

If you’re a member of an association, or are an executive at one, you’ll want to check this out.  Our friends over at Principled Innovation have just published the Association Social Technologies Executive Summary.  Some really great information in here.  A few highlights:

• 31% of associations have a social networking presence
• 10% of associations will have a social networking presence "soon"
• 31% of associations are exploring the idea of using social networking
• 24% of associations report that their association has a blog
• 92% of those blogs allow reader comments (sweet! – ed.)
• 14% of associations report using a wiki

A lot of really, really great stuff in the exec summary; can’t wait for the full report.  Check it out here.

Related: Social Networking for Businesses and Associations

Very happy!  Just got word that the BlogHer Guide to Political Bloggers, which was built with Cerado Ventana, is now available in the iPhone App Store.  If you’re tracking the Democratic National Convention (DNC) or the Republican National Convention (RNC) here in the States over the next few weeks, might be worth checking out.

Sweet.

This year, Cerado has built an Unofficial Pocket Guide for the
2008 Blog World Expo to help attendees navigate the conference and connect with one another. It’s powered by our innovative Ventana^TM system.

There are three versions of the Unofficial Pocket Guide available:

• For iPhone
• For Mobile (including the Nokia N95 and BlackBerry)
• For Your Blog (just click "Get Widget" at the bottom of the widget on this page)

The guide offers quick access to…

Buzz– The latest blog posts,  announcements, and Twitter comments are the first things you see when you open the Guide.

Network– The Network page lets attendees add themselves to the guide  and link to their Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.

Agenda – The Agenda page is your quick reference to sessions. Look here for titles, descriptions, times, rooms, and speaker names.

Help – We’ve included a helpful FAQ to help you keep track of everything that’s going on.

Blog World Expo 2008 will take place September 19-21 in the Las Vegas Convention Center. To reserve your place in the conversation, register now, and get the mobile, iPhone, or blog version of the guide.

This post is one of a series of recommendations arrived at by
going through the entire list of South by Southwest panels that are up
for consideration for 2009.

Important: Would love your support for "FlashMarkets: From the Roman Agora to the Mobile Web." Click here to vote or learn more.

SXSW 2009 Panel Recs: Human / Social Issues

Grokking Bloggers: It’s About Love and Underpants
 Elisa Camahort Page, BlogHer inc
"BlogHer’s recent Social Media Study quantified what most developers
and companies already intuited: Blogging is mainstream, addictive and
trusted. Women, in particular, are abandoning other media channels to
get information, and are becoming early adopters of every new Web 2.0
tool. This acquisition of information is only a by-product of acquiring
something more powerful: empowerment. This early adoption of technology
is not about cool-hunting or personal empire expansion: It’s about
love. What does it have to do with Underpants? You’ll have to come find
out."

Why We Love Our Jobs
Pawel Szymcsykowski, Zappos.com
"In the Zappos offices on any given day you’re likely to see people
racing pinewood derby cars, parading in lederhosen or singing karaoke
in the lunch room. Have all the adults left the building? Find out how
Zappos employees manage to be productive while having lots of fun at
work."

Product Management for Humans: What Version Are YOU?
Christine Herron, First Round Capital
"Self-help, self-improvement, self-growth…for the most part, it’s a
bunch of gooey hooey. Cut to the chase! Product and brand managers have
clear, proven techniques for understanding and evolving products,
learning from experience and feedback, and both setting and executing
against a strategic roadmap. Apply them to develop the person that you
want to be. What version are YOU on?"

For your reading pleasure, check out Reinventing Direct Marketing with VRM Inside.  Good stuff.

This post is one of a series of recommendations arrived at by
going through the entire list of South by Southwest panels that are up
for consideration for 2009.

Important: Would love your support for "FlashMarkets: From the Roman Agora to the Mobile Web." Click here to vote or learn more.

SXSW 2009 Panel Recs: Programming and Content

Learning from Architecture
John Athayde, Hyphenated People 
 "Designers
and programmers have been referencing Architecture since long before a
computer was involved. What can we learn from the field that taught us
that less is more (Mies)? Is your website a sign or a decorated shed
(Venturi)? What is a pattern Language (Alexander)? From Vitruvius to
Palladio to the modernists and the digital revolution in architecture,
see and discuss how these fields intersect and influence each other."

Why People Search Still (Mostly) Sucks
James Reffell, Yahoo!
"Despite search, social networks, and gushy articles in the New York
Times about Googling exes, looking for people online is often
unsuccessful — and sometimes it’s successful in creepy ways. We’ll
cover the issues that keep us from good people search, and what we can
do about it."

Yes, You Can Make Beautiful Sites with Drupal!
George DeMet, Palantir.net, Inc.
"A panel of Web gurus will share their experiences working with creative
partners and colleagues to develop visually stunning and highly
functional Web sites using the Drupal content management platform.
Learn tactical tips and tricks that will help you bend Drupal to your
will and create your own beautiful sites."

Coding for Civic Participation
Clay Johnson, Sunlight Foundation
"There’s a revolution happening in government transparency. We’re using
technology to make government more accountable to its citizens. A panel
of experts will talk the details about new APIs and tools that make
government data more accessible so that you the programmer can change
the world."

Beyond Aggregation — Finding the Web’s Best Content
Louis Gray, LouisGray.com
"RSS aggregation has reduced the massive ocean of Web content into
something more manageable, but we are still left overloaded with
information and manual searching. This panel will explore new avenues
for finding the Web’s best content, and how this more intelligent Web
will affect major media companies, online publishers and consumers. We
have confirmed Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb as a moderator."