An article in the Sunday paper got me thinking. The subject was that websites are now beginning to charge for their services. Duh! This was a certainty to those of us involved in the business - it was just a matter of when, how, and how much? Here's why.
The origins of the Internet were not commercial - not revenue producing. The 'net was an academic tool, with its roots firmly in the research establishment. Once the hardware infrastructure was put in place, the software was written largely by students and researchers and distributed for free. With that all in place, there was storage and bandwidth to spare, so individuals just started to put information (content) on the 'net just for the sake of doing it. No one charged for the content - they didn't even know HOW to charge for it. There was very little concern about copyrights (and this eventually exploded into the Napster-like sharing of music today).
There were attempts at commercial networks. In the 80's, such networks as the original AOL, Prodigy, and CompuServe charged for their services. Prodigy in particular was very annoying in that it placed advertisements on every screen you saw. But these early networks were very specifically not part of the Internet.
Once the "free" Internet matured, Prodigy and company lost many customers - why after all should people pay good money when they could get the content for free? AOL managed to bridge the gap successfully and is now Internet oriented. Prodigy and CompuServe did so to a lesser extent and offer some free content even if you don't sign up as a member.
The government, in funding the original Internet, didn't count small beans. Once the big picture was put in place, there was ample bandwidth for free individual use.
But the government now no longer fully funds the Internet. Private industry picked up the burden. Initially, much content was still free. But it was only a matter of time before the MBA bean counters moved in and started to count the beans. And, in counting, found that there weren't many beans coming in!
The first wave of Internet commercialism came with banner ads and dot.coms. Companies thought that they could generate significant revenue just by having little ads pop up on your screen. As a true ad-ignorer (and most of you are too) you learn to not even see the little things. There is actually software out there that can block them!
Many, many dot-com stores blossomed overnight, only to fail because they didn't provide any better price (or any decent service) over their brick-and-mortar counterparts.
Now the second wave is upon us - subscriptions. Many websites that were once free are now going to charge for access. Some are worth it, many are not.
The two issues to me are: how and how much. How much they can charge is difficult to determine. But if you just count the number of websites you visit regularly, and then multiply that by about $10/month, you will rapidly see that it will cost you a fortune to subscribe to everything you visit today. Ain't going to work. Not going to happen.
The how might even be worse. These companies will feel a need to secure their content somehow, and this will lead to strange verification techniques and software. You may end up installing some buggy software for each website just to verify that you are who you say you are. Messy at a minimum - a programming or virus disaster at worse.
Of course, a free Internet will continue and the vast majority of sites will not charge. But the key content providers will. Enjoy the free Internet while you can!
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at bsc@bobseidel.com).