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Is the tip jar set for a revival online?
In our networked culture where zero is the favorite number on
the price tag, the problem remains how content creators will be compensated for
their work. In the most recent internet
boom/bust cycle (it certainly wasn’t the last… can you smell it in the air?),
experimentation with “micropayments” revealed a little information about what
people were and were not willing to pay for online, and in what form. Ultimately, however, without sufficient cartel
control
the idea hasn’t taken off in a way many had hoped.
Now, though, the idea has come around again in a revised
form.
Humble is here. The
metaphor? Artists and bloggers are now street
performers in the internet’s “information super-BART
station.” If you like what you see or hear, kindly drop
a quarter in the jar. Or not.
Perhaps the most enthusiastic voice in this iteration is the
young, idealistic, and all around bright-guy Reinier Zwitserloot, (really,
‘loot’ is in his name!) who’s working on TipIt.to.
A member of the Four Starters weblog, Reinier
envisions an internet where anyone can easily show their appreciation with a
little spare change, and he’s enthusiastic to talk about it.
Nick
Szabo, contributor to the blog Unenumerated, brings in a number of
interesting ideas,
notably that you could integrate this system with existing aggregating and
rating systems, such as Digg. Other
aspects of this theoretical system are fascinating: What happens when your
tipping history is publicly available with others in the community?
But the question remains… Will people leave cash tips for
content online?
It seems unlikely. Why
would people voluntarily pay for content that they can have for free? With the exception of hardcore pornography,
even subscription-for-content models haven’t worked on a mass scale. But then again, the internet is the fertile
ground for growing unlikely ideas.
Micropanhandling is interesting in that it does resolve the
“pay before you consume” hurdle that is so daunting to users. But what may be more compelling is the timing
of this idea with a number of other trends, including the mainstreaming of
rating systems and aggregators, the ubiquity of social networks, and finally,
the impending widgetization of the web, which promises to decentralize and
distribute “website” functionality in entirely new ways.
I’ll be following Reinier’s project with interest. One thing that remains to be seen is how, as
little middleman, Reiner will pay for whatever overhead his system entails at
TipIt.to. Perhaps the aim is to build a
proof-of-concept system that will be gobbled up by Yahoo! or another scalable
tech firm that sees an opportunity to take a nickel off every tip as the system
grows.
As it stands, the project seems antithetical to Google’s
aim, which is clearly to consume all content and staple advertising in the
whitespace… because if it works, there’s a real disincentive to install AdSense
on your website.
“If it works” is one enormous “if.” Maybe someone else is already developing the
“WILL WORK FOR BEER” widget as we speak.
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I think you're onto something with the "Will Work for Beer" widget.