There's a "weird disconnect" between the attitude that TV companies have to broadcasting their content on TV and putting it online, said Mint Digital's managing director Andy Bell. Channel 4 gives away £2m of content every day, he said, yet when it comes to the web executives start talking about 'monetising eyeballs'.
Instead they need to think like TV, commissioning things that will interest and excite people. The web is a very generous place; Facebook, Google, MySpace all give users services and access content for free every day.
The free software movement has gone from the lunatic fringes to the mainstream. In 1995, Microsoft was selling code and keeping the source secret. By 2000, the then tech-darling Netscape was giving away code but keeping the source secret. And by 2005, MySQL was giving away code and the source. "Something about the internet means it pushed people to give as much as possible."
He pointed to the 'rockonomics' of the music industry. The web is saturated with free music, but that has created a premium on live music. Ticket prices rose 8.9% between 1996 and 2003, and it's not unusual now to pay £10 for a premium show in London now. He cited a quote by David Bowie: "Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity. So it's like, just take advantage of these last few years because none of this is ever going to happen again. You'd better be prepared for doing a lot of touring because that's really the only unique situation that's going to be left."
The top 35 artists make 7.5% more from touring than they do from record sales; the point is that people do want great content, and the markets and business models are adjusting around the availability of free music.
Much of the value is in the presentation; the sum can be greater than the parts. The government had trouble giving away £250 in tax credits, yet the Innocent Village Fete cost far less per participant and built great buzz for the brand. Not that the government is trying to build brand buzz, but projects can be made far more accessible for people. Bell gave Carrotmob as a great example of a collaborative project with a heart of gold; it organises people to flash mob shops and in return for pushing up they takings, they ask the owner to dedicate a percentage of the takings to greenifying their business. (That's the find of the day!)
Making money should not be the priority, he said. He detects a movement to a puritan, do-good attitude in the social entrepreneur sector that is moving away from thinking about the value in entertainment. But framing the agenda should be the most important part of the public service remit for the BBC and Channel 4.
Bell's list for a generous web project:
• Be funny - use the zeitgeist. Stephen Fry said during a recent speech that the iconic comedians of the past decades have "defined the aspirations and failures of successive generations".
• Harness the power of mass participation. The two mint projects were the ones that allowed people to fully participate, like Islandoo, which created a social community around the show Shipwrecked.
• Give users a clear goal. It's tempting to add new features, but they can be confusing to new users.
• Cross over into the real world. If it's purely online, it feels geeky and niche.
• Don't expect to change the world. People get carried away on the web and think they can change the world. Victor Hugo said there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. Media companies are better placed to change minds, than the world.
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