Based on yesterday's blog, co-incidently Ed has touched on "free" with a reference to this article on wired.com. The thought is that the digital age will produce a scores of free-stuff. And the author, Chris Anderson, is right, to a point. Sure you haven't put your fist in your pocket and pulled out some cash, but when it comes to free software, there are potential risks, that incur cost and effort, (as per my previous blog entry).

Chris goes on about the available free stuff which is all totally, and exclusively, commodity based products and services that have low entry and exit risk. Razor blades, advertising, gifts, internet-traffic, micro-payments. Sure, it's moving to "free" status. This is fine up until you have to invest a level of effort to use or opt-out of the "Free" service/product.

The other thing about free I don't like is that it's valued by the consumer at the same level you have "paid" for it. If you bought a nice Bugatti Veyron for $2.5M you are going to respect it alot more than if it's given to you. If it's free, the underlying personal value to an individual is low or low-risk. And likewise the provider is not going to invest alot of effort in getting you something for free either. Their alternative agenda is the main driver, so potentially, the quality of the product you acquire may not be upto your requirements.

Without cost, participants on both sides of the transaction are not committed. Take for instance free technical conferences. How many times have you been invited to a "Free" conference and not turned up ? Or a free technical course and found that the tangible skills you obtain out of it are too limited for the commercial purpose you sought ?

So all I am saying is that "free" is a double-edged proposition, especially when it comes to things relating to human effort. Software has underlying effort around it, so if you need something else out of it, someone has to write the code and test it. And if you want to use it in your line of business with confidence you have to test it, and test it again. There's cost in that to, so TCO starts to play a factor. In those cases where you are actually committed to some free software or service as part of your line of business, if you need support immediately, do you think that provider's support response will be equivalent to your needs. Unlikely, unless someone else is picking up the tab or you now pay a premium for a timely response. So "free" is a dirty word in my books unless you can completely commoditise an application and present a low-risk entry and exit option to consumers.