Chris Anderson authors the new book Free.
Malcolm Gladwell offers some critical commentary in his review. A sample:
There are four strands of argument here: a technological claim (digital infrastructure is effectively Free), a psychological claim (consumers love Free), a procedural claim (Free means never having to make a judgment), and a commercial claim (the market created by the technological Free and the psychological Free can make you a lot of money). The only problem is that in the middle of laying out what he sees as the new business model of the digital age Anderson is forced to admit that one of his main case studies, YouTube, “has so far failed to make any money for Google.”
Chris Anderson responds to Gladwell.
My verdict: Gladwell 1 – Anderson 0
UPDATE: Tim Lee weighs in with a good response to Anderson’s critics.
Thanks for linking to this article. It’s a very interesting read. I enjoyed how Gladwell slams Anderson’s use of Lewis Strauss, the former head of the Atomic Energy Commission–that Strauss is over-the-top utopian, just as Anderson’s claim to free-free-free is a utopian ideal that’ll never happen.