Information is the product (part 1).
I’ll apologize in advance for this post. Firstly, my head is extremely foggy as I am still recovering from an inner ear infection which is making the room spin and taking my stomach with it. I’m pretty sure my writing and thinking aren’t as crisp as they should be. Secondly, I’ve also chosen to write about a fairly complicated and confusing (at least to me) topic because I need to get it out on paper (so to speak). I’ve only really got about a half a thought right now but I’ve got a feeling there’s more to come on this. As a result, I won’t be offended if you only manage to read several lines and then give up. I probably should have contented myself with posting a funny video but there you go.
A number of different things have set me thinking about the rising importance of how-to information. (In the real world we might think of this as instructions or tips and tricks. In the digital world we’d call this software.)
Last week, my 13 year-old’s school just got a 3D printer for her class. Amazingly these are now selling for about $5K which is what my wife paid for her first Apple Laserjet back in the early 90s. Of course, there are so many reasons why this is revolutionary, but the one that interests me today is that these printers are the first step in moving physical fabrication from the factory to the home. Projecting forwards, it is conceivable that there will be a certain class of products which will offer “download to printer” as a purchase option, transforming the seller of a product to the seller of information about how to fabricate a product.
Then a couple of nights ago I caught this Walmart ad on the TV:
This is part of Walmart’s “Save Money. Live Better.” campaign. What’s interesting about this to me is that Walmart has clearly realised that pricing is not the only way to save you money – information can also help you save money. This is actually being extended in some pretty smart ways online too.
Then finally this morning I read about Setlist.fm via Mashable. While this appears to be primarily a fan-site which lets you share set lists from concerts, it also has the effect of enabling you to partially recreate (albeit without the ambiance and feel) an entire concert in your own home.
All of these point to the fact that information about a topic, product or service is becoming more valuable by the day. And this further supports my premise that all businesses are becoming information businesses to some extent. They are moving away from the selling of things and moving towards the selling of information.
This also starts to mess around with the traditional manufacturer or producer v. consumer role. If manufacturing is done at the point of consumption or by a 3rd party then the idea of manufacturer must be severed from the notion of vendor. Likewise if consumption is actually no more than execution of instructions whether they are physical or digital – does this really constitute consumption?
I’ve tried to map this out on a chart:
It seems to me there are some very profound and far-reaching implications of this but I have completely run out of steam and haven’t got the foggiest (pun intended) as to what they are right now. However, I’m sure it will come to me in a day or so, otherwise if you have any thoughts I’d love to hear them in the comments.