Connotea: Bookmarks matching tag oa.new (50 items) |
- Saying You Can't Compete With Free Is Saying You Can't Compete Period | Techdirt
- Open access as a public good: “He who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.”
- The impact of open access funding agency policies (March 31, 2012 Dramatic Growth of Open Access)
- Google's hilarious April Fools' Maps launch | Technically Incorrect - CNET News
- Filmmaker Kevin Smith blasts MPAA ratings in online-porn era | Geek Gestalt - CNET News
- The Dutch Research Repositories Monitor 2011
| Saying You Can't Compete With Free Is Saying You Can't Compete Period | Techdirt Posted: 02 Apr 2012 06:20 PM PDT www.techdirt.com “Getting back to my series of posts on understanding economics when scarcity is removed from some goods, I wanted to address the ridiculousness of the ‘can't compete with free’ statements that people love to throw out. If we break down the statement carefully, anyone who says that is really saying that they can't compete at all. The free part is actually meaningless -- but the zero is blinding everyone. To explain this, it helps to go back to your basic economics class and recognize that, in a competitive market, the price of a good is always going to get pushed towards its marginal cost. That actually makes a lot of sense. As competition continues, it puts pressure on profits, but producers aren't willing (or can't for very long) keep selling goods at a direct loss. Sunk (or fixed) costs don't matter, because they've already been paid -- so everything gets pushed to marginal cost. That's pretty well accepted by most folks -- but it's still misinterpreted by many... The problem is that they don't add in the element of time, and the idea that what drives innovation is the constant efforts by the producers in the space to add fleeting competitive advantages.. In other words, companies look to add some value to the goods that makes their goods better than the competition in some way -- and that unique value helps them command a profit. But, the nature of the competitive market is that it's always shifting, so that everyone needs to keep on innovating, or any innovation will be matched (and usually surpassed) by competitors. That's good for everyone. It keeps a market dynamic and growing and helps out everyone. So, let's go back to the ‘can't compete with free’ statement. Anyone who says that is effectively saying that they can't figure out a way to add value that will make someone buy something above marginal cost -- but it's no different if the good is free or at a cost. So why aren't the same people who insist that you can't compete with free whining about any other competitive market situation? Because they know that, left unfettered, the market adjusts. The makers of automobiles keep trying to adjust and differentiate their cars through real and perceived benefits (such as brand) -- and that lets them add value in a way that they can make money and not have to worry about having products priced at marginal cost. If a company can't do that, it goes out of business -- and most people consider that a good thing. If you can't compete, you should go out of business. But, when it comes to goods with a $0 marginal cost, even though the net result is identical to goods with a higher marginal cost, suddenly people think that you can't compete? The $0 price makes no difference. All that matters is the difference in price you can charge to the marginal cost. Everyone else learns to differentiate -- why can't those who produce infinite goods do the same? The answer is that they already do -- even if they don't realize it. Why do movies still cost more than $0? Because there's additional value bundled with the movie itself. People don't buy ‘a movie.’ They buy the experience of going to the theater. People like to go out to the movies. They like the experience. Or people buy the convenience of a DVD (which is another feature bundled with the movie). They like to buy DVDs (or rent them) in order to get the more convenient delivery mechanism and the extra features that come with DVDs. In other words, they like the differentiated value they can get from bundled goods and services that helps justify a price that's more than $0. Just as people are willing to pay more than the marginal cost (in some cases a lot more) to get that car they want, they're willing to pay more for a bundled good or service with content -- if only the makers of that content would realize it...” |
| Posted: 02 Apr 2012 05:56 PM PDT Omega Alpha | Open Access, (03 Apr 2012) |
| The impact of open access funding agency policies (March 31, 2012 Dramatic Growth of Open Access) Posted: 02 Apr 2012 09:53 AM PDT poeticeconomics.blogspot.ca The March 31, 2012 Dramatic Growth of Open Access focuses on the impact (or lack thereof) of funding agencies' open access policies. Compliance rates vary. There is some evidence of a most transformative effect beyond the policy per se. The evidence suggests that policy per se is not sufficient to drive change; other actions, such as assertive implementation, may be necessary. |
| Google's hilarious April Fools' Maps launch | Technically Incorrect - CNET News Posted: 02 Apr 2012 08:01 AM PDT news.cnet.com “Google is funny. I have wanted to write that sentence for so long in a context where funny meant ‘intentionally humorous.’ So here is an April Fools' work of art from the company that, to many minds, just might deserve righteous laughter. For here, purportedly, is the launch of Google Maps 8-bit for the Nintendo Entertainment System. According to Google's Lat Long blog, this is something that the world desperately needs. ‘Our engineering team in Japan understood the importance of maps on retro game systems. With the power of Google's immense data centers, and support from Nintendo and Square Enix, we were able to overcome the technical and design hurdles of developing 8-bit maps,’wrote Google Maps software engineer, Tatsuo Nomura. He goes on to wax with some lyricism about ‘beautiful low-res graphics; simple and intuitive controls; and a timeless soundtrack.’ He also promises a mobile version for Game Boy. Yet even more enchanting is the deadpan performance of the actors in the promotional video. Their faces straighter than a Google engineer's on a Monday morning, the Japanese family waits for this technical revolution to reveal itself. The father even blows on the cartridge to ‘fix bugs.’ And then we see the beautiful low resolution of the maps, as the family searches for the Pyramids or tries to plot its route from Los Angeles to New York. The sheer joy when the family tries the voice search feature and discovers Peru Nazca will fill your heart with gladness. I am grateful to The Next Web for revealing this April Fools' amusement. Unless, of course, this is just another attempt by Google to control absolutely every possible technological scenario in the world. No, no. It couldn't be.” |
| Filmmaker Kevin Smith blasts MPAA ratings in online-porn era | Geek Gestalt - CNET News Posted: 02 Apr 2012 08:00 AM PDT news.cnet.com “For certain types of people, finding out that fantasy writer Neil Gaiman likes their work could be considered the cherry on top of a career. So for filmmaker Kevin Smith, seeing that Gaiman once tweeted "I suspect @ThatKevinSmith is what all gods and demons aspire to be" had to make for one terrific day. @ThatKevinSmith, of course, is the man who made such cult hits as "Clerks," "Mallrats," and "Chasing Amy." More recently, he's moved on from wry humor to darker stuff like "Red State." And he's even been telling the world that he is quitting movies altogether. In fact, the man who may be known to many as Silent Bob (from "Clerks") may these days be better termed an Internet mogul, or at least someone who has built a popular podcasting empire. But now he's also wearing the hat of an author, having just published his latest book, ‘Tough Sh*t: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob who did Good.’ The book, which tells all kinds of stories from throughout his career in movies -- as well as his early explorations with technology, his adventures courting his wife, and much more -- is a hit both in paper and in electronic forms. It recently landed on the bestseller list, something Smith himself realizes may not be quite as impressive as it sounds. But while Silent Bob comes to any conversation with plenty of opinions, the most striking ones he shared with CNET during an interview last week may well have had to do with his incredulity at how out of touch the Motion Picture Association of America's movie rating system is. After all, Smith argued, the system was developed to shield children from things they weren't ready for, something that is simply an impossible task in the Internet era... [Q] What about the MPAA? They seem sort of perpetually 10 years behind where technology's going. How do you deal with that? Smith: I've been dealing with the MPAA for a couple of years on our flicks, but not, ‘These dinosaurs, these analog fools in a digital age.’ More like, do you guys understand what counts as offensive anymore? With ‘Clerks,’ we got a NC-17 for language. There was no nudity that they were citing, there was no violence. It was because these two dudes sat around and talked about (sex). But in the current case of the ‘Bully’ documentary (video), some of the bullies used the term ‘f--k,’ so suddenly the MPAA says, ‘More than one use of the word 'f--k' in a specific situation, gets you an R-rating. Sorry, that's the way it goes.’ And I'm like, don't apologize, change your policy, particularly for a film that clearly needs to get out to an audience (teenagers) that maybe can't get in with a prohibitive R-rating. [Q} A bigger problem with that is that schools can't show films with an R-rating, right? Smith: Exactly. Is the MPAA truly in touch? The rating system was put in place a long time ago in a world that doesn't resemble this one at all, when nobody could possibly conceive of the fact that one day a 9-year-old kid could open up their laptop and watch a dude (have sex with) a horse. At that point, what do you care about a PG-13 or an R? It's not like, now that we have this rating on this movie, children are safe from vulgarity forever. It's like a Band-Aid on a cancer patient. These cats are putting their finger in a dike, forgetting that the dike burst long ago. There's nothing that Warner Bros. will put into a movie in the next 50 years that will ever warrant the amount of concern a parent should have for the constant access to hard-core pornography that kids under the age of 18 have today...” [Please use the link above to read the full transcript of the interview] |
| The Dutch Research Repositories Monitor 2011 Posted: 02 Apr 2012 07:58 AM PDT www.surf.nl Undated but apparently February 2012 (the Dutch original is dated February 2012). "Key observations as regards Open Access: [1] The percentage of publications made available annually via the repositories on an Open Access (OA) basis (referred to below as “coverage”) has not increased significantly since 2007; in 2010, it fluctuated between 7% and 30% at virtually all institutions. [2] It is only in the case of theses that a large majority of the universities have succeeded in achieving coverage of more than 80% over the past four years (2007–2010). [3] The level of OA success (i.e. as regards theses) or stagnation (as regards all other publications) does not correlate with university mandates or personnel capacity. [4] Implementation of six of the nine “standard” success factors for institutional repositories at more than half the institutions has not led to a higher level of coverage. Based on experience so far with the three other success factors, no breakthroughs can be expected here either...." |
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