Kevin Kelly wrote an insightful post on the internet as a great copy machine. His premise is when copies are free you have to sell things which can’t be copied. This creates an opportunity to derive value (cash) from things that can’t be copied, faked or cloned – or as he calls them, “generatives”.
He goes on to outline the “eight generatives”. Kelly writes:
“In a real sense, these are eight things that are better than free. Eight uncopyable values. I call them “generatives.” A generative value is a quality or attribute that must be generated, grown, cultivated, nurtured. A generative thing can not be copied, cloned, faked, replicated, counterfeited, or reproduced. It is generated uniquely, in place, over time. In the digital arena, generative qualities add value to free copies, and therefore are something that can be sold.”
His eight generatives are:
- Immediacy
- Personalization
- Interpretation
- Authenticity
- Accessibility
- Embodiment
- Patronage
- Findability
Working in the content business for most of my career, I am well aware of the impact the internet has had on our margins. I find this a pretty interesting framework for evaluating new efforts and current operations as well.
As a side note, one of the commentators references this essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction“. I mention it here as a reminder to self to read it some day.