This comment from Barry Diller, the CEO-Chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp, appeared on Bloomberg yesterday:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aZeenjkAYFIE

Last month, he was interviewed in Businessweek on the same topic:

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/FineOnMedia/archives/2009/06/barry_diller_an.html

Here’s his corporate biography and in interesting business exchange interview with him from Joost:

http://iac.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=20&item=17

What’s interesting is that there is a genuine schism between coders and technologists who — especially when they launch their platforms — believe in the free+open model because they’re aware people don’t want to pay over and above the monthly ISP charges they already have to contend with, and the corporate managers who — charged with the responsibility of making the platform profitable — recognize that “free” is unsustainable and serves to accelerate a platform’s demise. Someone has to pay to keep the platform operational. It can’t keep coming out of investors’ resources because they invest to earn a profit, not to finance users.

So what we have is a situation where a technology starts off being open and free and then it migrates towards closed gate community and charges to continue membership of that community.

The challenge, in terms of strategy, is in pinpointing the timing, the geography and the motivation of when free flips to fee. WHEN and WHERE can the platform’s users bear the costs and what USP would make that content chargeable?

It’s helpful that someone as experienced as Barry Diller refers to free content as a “myth”. The reality is that no content is free. All online content we access incurs a TIME COST. Now since, according to the adage, “Time is money,” it could be argued that just as users should perhaps pay to watch content produced by a third party, so should THEY BE PAID (either in US$ or in-kind) if they write reviews and commentary about that content wherein the reviews and commentary adds to the contextualization, propagation or interest traction of that content.

How do we framework the reciprocity of payment exchange in a paid content model that’s equitable to the company and the users alike? That’s what we need to know!

The fact is that neither free or paid arguments have completely won me over. There are merits in both and areas of improvement needed for both, and I’m informed about some of the considerations involved.

Over three years ago, a leading wi-fi entrepreneur sent me his business plan to sanity check. I turned the document, which he and his managers had taken several years to put together, around in about 8 hours. Within the week, I’d managed to persuade him to stop subsidizing his router and, instead, charging for it at a more appropriate price point. At that staget, they’d been subsidizing it for approx 15 months. I understood their “free is good” philosophy but also had an awareness of how potential investors would view this subsidization if it over-stepped its welcome: unnecessary cash burn and delaying break-even. Neither of these are liked by investors, btw. That’s one example of me advocating that, “Users should pay for the product.”

Now, in 2009, it’s interesting to hear Tom Gruber say that Siri will be a “free” service application. In a sense, it’s become acceptable for a tech giant like Google to release free services and applications (on browser, over wi-fi, via Android etc.) as a means of continuous engagement with core users, over more diverse digital terrains. However, for start-ups, offering the application or service for free with almost no business model to monetize user interest and engagement can be risky.

It also raises some questions about the changing dynamics of what we consider to be capitalism and the roles and rewards systems of participants in the Knowledge Hive.

There are several Semantic plays out there currently operating a “free” model whereby the structured data is being built with bottoms-up methodology. In other words, the content is actually being filtered, tagged and sanity-checked by unpaid users.

When the paid model arrives to the Semantic versions of online content, will this mean that they’ll be paying to access the very content they’re responsible for collating, structuring, contributing and making sense of?

If so, this means they will have paid TWICE OVER:

(1.) time cost of contributing content.

(2.) access cost once the paid model is implemented.

What measures can companies put in place so that ordinary users who’ve contributed substantial and significant content are not subject to access costs? How can they be retrospectively paid for their content? Who is / are the arbiter(s) of the value of their content? Where would they go for arbitration of disputes regarding the payment or otherwise for their content?

See? It’s not simply a case of User X will pay US$A for each ZMB content they access, US$B for content they download, etc. What if the content includes reviews and commentary User X has previously contributed or is continuing to play a significant part in propagating (aka marketing and PR)? Why shouldn’t they be paid for these marketing and PR services?

Answer: they should be paid.

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[I've been figuring this out for Project ART, btw. My potential answer is certainly not derived from the media sector, alone. The time-old media model of subscriptions, advertising and transactions needs a good dose of re-imagining, imo. It needs twaining with the way other sectors generate revenues and rewards participants in the process.]

Part of the rationale of this blog is to act as a time capsule for my children to discover what family life à la their mother (before she was married and had them) entailed — not only for them to have access to my insights and continue in their quest (if they so choose) towards tech innovations, the Global Brain, insights into global economies, society-at-large etc.

In synch with the brain food is the real food.

Below are some pictures of a typical family lunch chez moi. I’m doing this because, often, when my mother talks about the dishes my grandparents cooked for her and her brothers and sisters, I have no reference to them in pictures. It is a wisdom lost.

What seems to be true in all forms of human development — whether it’s mapping a language, structuring a balance sheet, coding a dynamic real-time multi-user platform or cooking, etc. — is that we need AUDIOVISUAL and other sensory points of reference as much as text ones. Then it’s a case of assimilating them, identifying patterns within them and cross-pollinating them to iterate new patterns, templates and standards.

As with cooking…………….so with knitting………………and so with coding………………

Of course, we could just enjoy the food for the sheer taste pleasure of it!

Here’s my first-ever attempt to make vegetarian Chinese spring rolls. What’s the occasion for a first? A month-long celebration of my mother’s 60^th, so last w/e I thought it would be good to show her she’s managed to pass on some of her spring rolls heritage.

Admittedly I’m no novice in this Chinese classic, but it is the first time I’ve ever made it end-to-end: bought all the ingredients, assembled it, flavored it, fried it and passed the discerning palate of my younger brother who’s particularly particular about spring rolls.

Growing up, I did watch my mother make thousands of them. Her spring rolls are — without any familial bias — the best tasting in the world. They’re packed with the most perfectly cooked ingredients and flavors that take the palette through a memorable journey of saltiness, sweetness and spicyness.

It’s always a highlight of our year: spring rolls day.

I can only hope that one day, with a LOT of practice (1000 hours as Malcolm Gladwell recommends to master any skill), my kids will feel the same sense of anticipation and joy with my spring rolls. Yes, they will spend most Sundays in the kitchen practicing the art of cooking; it’s a skill that should be handed through the generations. The discipline of it can also help a person become highly organized and get a sense of how different discrete elements can be combined to make a whole — much like how a balance sheet gets put together or Javascript, PHP and AS3 can fit within a single xhtml cake bake.

My childhood duty was always to top, tail and wash the beansprouts, make the omlettes and also to separate each raw spring roll sheet from each other. The rest (the magic, the fusion of filling with casing) was all in my mother’s deft hands and secret family flavoring.

So here’s what happened when I attempted my version of it — minus the meat because I’m still on my 31-day vegetarian trial.

The verdict of its success or otherwise is best explained by this: my younger brother was even prepared to pay me for each one and yet, beforehand, my mother had insisted he wouldn’t eat any of them since they were vegetarian!

Now………….if the brainwork doesn’t pan out, I suppose I could just make spring rolls all day and sell them at GBP3.50 per roll — LOL!

Enjoy.

(1.) Prepare your fresh vegetables and wash them. When I say “aubergine” in the video that’s aka EGGPLANT.

(2.) Lightly stir-fry the vegetables in a wok with 1 tablespoon of groundnut oil and your choice of flavoring, on a high heat. Ground in some pepper to taste. Once the vegetables are done (still al dente and crunchy), turn the heat off.

(3.) In a large frying pan make 2 omelettes with 3 beaten eggs. Set aside some of the beaten egg for later — please see instruction 7.

(4.) Slice the omelette length-wise and mix into the stir-fried vegetables. This is the filling for the spring rolls.

(5.) Carefully separate each spring roll pastry sheet from the others and set aside on a flat surface.

(6.) Scoop 2 tablespoons worth of the filling onto a spring roll sheet. Fold in one corner, over the filling and roll it away from you until there is about 3cm of sheet still unrolled.

Fold the left corner of the sheet towards the middle of the spring roll.

[Take care not to puncture the spring roll sheet or the filling will ooze out and the oil may spittle on contact with the moisture from the vegetables.]

(7.) Using some beaten egg, seal the folded left side down. Repeat with the right side flap. Finally, the remaining 3cm still unrolled at the top — like an envelope flap.

(8.) This is how a completely rolled up spring roll looks:

(9.) Oil a thick frying pan and place the spring rolls inside. Put the heat on at a low-medium.

[The amount of oil you use is purely a personal choice. It's possible to deep and shallow fry the spring rolls. However, too much oil = too greasy inside + too unhealthy.]

(10.) Turn the spring rolls over frequently until they’re a golden brown on both sides.

(11.) Once the outside no longer shows any white patches of uncooked pastry, turn the heat off and let the spring rolls sit in the latent heat for about 60 seconds.

Then remove from the frying pan and serve. Garnish with some fresh coriander and offer a small bowl of sweet chili sauce as an accompaniment.

Although this version is vegetarian it is possible to include cooked prawns, crabmeat, scallops, chicken and pork in the spring roll. Chinese people also add and experiment with filling ingredients such as: wood ear fungus, glass noodles, shitake mushrooms, chestnuts, sliced savoy cabbage, seaweed and parsnips.

This isn’t a clone of my mother’s version at all. I simply wanted to show her I could make my own distinctive and flavorsome one that would get the family’s seals of approval! It was very very yummy……………..

*Contented sighs*. Next time I’m making a version with spicy Sichuan duck inside.

For today’s lunch we’re eating:

* smokey grilled aubergine (aka eggplant) and sticky braised eggplant with radish — I’m making this

* roast duck

* steamed fish

* grilled 5-spice chicken wings

* two types of tofu — one sautéed in hoisin sauce, the other stir-fried with chopped plum tomatoes

* coleslaw with sesame seeds and garlic rice vinegar

Photos and videos later.

Although I take my mother out for celebratory birthday meals in great restaurants — typically French or Italian — there’s nothing she prefers to do than to have her children around for some home-cooking. Anyone who’s ever watched the brilliant film, Eat Drink Man Woman, by Ang Lee (the director responsible for Crouching Tiger, Sense+Sensibility and The Hulk) will know that Chinese families are bound together by their shared love of food and of home cooking.