Free for all (was RE: Research Guidance for Library to host - Use ful?)

[George Porter]

Byron C. Mayes raises an interesting point:  "*Can* "free" services
effectively 
compete on the web?"  I think his analysis of pay-per-use "...fewer
customers gets less money and consequently must either improve its
attraction rate, cut-back its expectations, or shut down..." is slightly
inaccutate.  Both points are worth discussing.

In the commercial world, there is more than one, pick an example,
automobile manufacturer.  Arguably, some go belly up, but a wide variety
of factors come into play.  Production costs are have great importance
in both the commercial and nonprofit sectors.  Thomas Dowling's LibWeb
<http://sunsite.Berkeley.EDU/Libweb/>, resides outside of his work
environment on a grant-supported platform.  His major costs are not
fiscal, but rather opportunity costs.  What else could/would he be doing
with the personal time that he has chosen to invest in the project?
What reward does he perceive from this this endeavor and how does he
value it compared with the rewards possible from other uses of his time?

Cases have been made for the path-dependence of technological success.
A book, whose title escapes me currently, was published in the
mid-1990's which used the aforementioned automobile industry choosing
between steam, electric, and gasoline powered vehicles as an example.  A
common flashpoint in some quarters are the merits of QWERTY vs Dvorak
keyboards, Beta vs VHS.  

Discussions on this list have chastised Yahoo, Lycos, and AltaVista
(among many others) for perceived shortfalls in their web indexing
granularity, speed with which they move on suggested links, etc.  First,
notice that all continue to exist.  Second, notice that all contnieu to
have adherents.  Customer loyalty, based upon first discovery or
perceived fit of organization to information seeking behavior, will
likely permit the perception of value delivered to the community
sufficient to keep  both Thomas Dowling and Michael Sauers actively
improving their services for the foreseeable future.

George S. Porter
Technical Reference Librarian
Sherman Fairchild Library of Engineering & Applied Science

California Institute of Technology
Mail Code 1-43, Pasadena, CA  91125
Telephone (626) 395-3409 Fax (626) 431-2681
george at library.caltech.edu