The Beautiful, Risky Leap of Sharing
I recently started reading Ronald van den Hoff’s Society 3.0. So far, one quote stands out:
“A new world has arisen parallel to our current conventional economic reality, which is creating sustainable value every day. This added value does not always go hand in hand with monetary reward.”
I think that sentence represents one of the biggest challenges to promoting business models around open. Unlike traditional modes of making money off content, business models that involve freely sharing content create value in a way that rarely immediately translates into money. If I put my writing behind a paywall, as challenging as it is to sustain an audience this way, every reader means a bit more money in my pocket. I get immediate gratification for sharing my work in the form of money, and it is not hard to understand why this feels like the right way to operate. Creating copyrighted content of any type — writing, music, art — requires an investment of time and, even more importantly, a tiny piece of your soul. It is natural to expect immediate compensation for sharing that little piece of ourselves with the world, especially if we are trying to make a living off of our art.
But when you freely share your work with the world using Creative Commons, you have to see your content as an engine that powers some other way of making money. In some cases, it fuels sales of your physical books. In others, it encourages people to come to your live shows, or to hire you to provide customized services to them. Your content produces value for others right away, but the value to you is unpredictable in timing and effect. It’s like planting a seed that you aren’t sure will grow. If it does blossom, it can be a beautiful thing, resulting in new and unexpected collaborations, opportunities, and transformations to your original work.
Like any big change, it comes with a risk. You close the door to immediate payment for your content, but you open a larger door to the world.
