Comments on: Gimme, Gimme, Gimme http://jeffreysambells.com/posts/2008/01/16/gimme-gimme-gimme/ It's Just Me Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:01:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Mike Purvis http://jeffreysambells.com/posts/2008/01/16/gimme-gimme-gimme/comment-page-1/#comment-18199 Mike Purvis Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:06:16 +0000 http://jeffreysambells.com/posts/2008/01/16/gimme-gimme-gimme/#comment-18199 <p>A lot of people expect free consulting from their relatives who happen to be lawyers or doctors ("Oh, by the way, quick question for you...").</p> <p>The thing about web design and programming is, ultimately, 99% of people <em>can</em> tell the difference afterward, even if they can't lay their finger on all of the precise elements that make up that difference. But they can see that the site their kid made isn't as good as a We-Create site, and they can probably also see that a We-Create site isn't at the same level as sonystyle.com or apple.com.</p> <p>At least with coding a website for a client, there's a clear product that changes hands, and it's obvious to everyone that <em>something</em> should be charged, even if they're not sure how much.</p> <p>What gets me more is giving away content. Because giving away content really is the standard (yay Google), and there are some very obvious and definite advantages to doing so---many of them shared with the benefits of developing open source. The National Post made itself irrelevant online for years by hiding content behind a login, where news aggregators couldn't find it, and it couldn't be shared. In the meantime, the Globe became the worldwide standard for online Canadian news. (The NP sucks these days anyways, but they used to have some fantastic columnists, back before Christie Blatchford left.)</p> A lot of people expect free consulting from their relatives who happen to be lawyers or doctors (”Oh, by the way, quick question for you…”).

The thing about web design and programming is, ultimately, 99% of people can tell the difference afterward, even if they can’t lay their finger on all of the precise elements that make up that difference. But they can see that the site their kid made isn’t as good as a We-Create site, and they can probably also see that a We-Create site isn’t at the same level as sonystyle.com or apple.com.

At least with coding a website for a client, there’s a clear product that changes hands, and it’s obvious to everyone that something should be charged, even if they’re not sure how much.

What gets me more is giving away content. Because giving away content really is the standard (yay Google), and there are some very obvious and definite advantages to doing so—many of them shared with the benefits of developing open source. The National Post made itself irrelevant online for years by hiding content behind a login, where news aggregators couldn’t find it, and it couldn’t be shared. In the meantime, the Globe became the worldwide standard for online Canadian news. (The NP sucks these days anyways, but they used to have some fantastic columnists, back before Christie Blatchford left.)

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