Kevin Kelly — Episode 1: Better Than Free

In a remarkable January 31, 2008 essay Kelly provided a roadmap to using the internet as a tool for fun and profit.

What I liked about the piece was his focus on how individuals can generate real cash from virtual space.

Excerpts from his (free) article:


The internet is a copy machine.


Unlike the mass-produced reproductions of the machine age, these copies are not just cheap, they are free.


Once anything that can be copied is brought into contact with the internet, it will be copied, and those copies never leave.


Yet the previous round of wealth in this economy was built on selling precious copies, so the free flow of copies tends to undermine the established order. If reproductions of our best efforts are free, how can we keep going? To put it simply, how does one make money selling free copies?


When copies are free, you need to sell things which cannot be copied.

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In tomorrow's Episode 2 I'll focus on those "things which cannot be copied."