4iP Blog

Michael Rappa from North Carolina State Uni’s Institute for Advanced Analytics posts a great starter-for-ten showing how business models have become as important to seize, if not more so, than the traditional staking of intellectual property on actual running code and Artificial Intelligence. When I kicked off 4iP’s work in Scotland, I remember a slight frisson in the room when I suggested that a possessive attitude to ideas through Intellectual Property laws and the insistence on NDAs before talking about ideas would be detrimental to everyone - it was how you exploited your idea, not that you had it in the first place, that would make the difference in a product’s success.

Rappa outlines nine main business model categories, and goes on to provide some clear examples of how these have been applied and even patented:
  * Brokerage (marketplaces, “name-your-price”, auction, distributor/search agent)
  * Advertising (banner, affiliate, personalised portals, niche portals, classifieds, user registration for ultralocal placements, intromercials/pre-roll, ultramercials or click-to-continues)
  * Infomediary (gathering data to sell on to targeted campaigns, audience measurement service, loyalty information)
  * Merchant (digital sales, virtual store)
  * Manufacturer (direct sale of a product, licence of a product to a third party, white labeling)
  * Affiliate (pay-per-click and revenue sharing of advertising and distribution of that advertising)
  * Community (harnessing a volunteer community or accepting donations)
  * Subscription (free content for all plus pay-for content, or “Freemium”, could include better content services, trust networks/affiliation)
  * Utility (metered subscriptions or usage)

Clearly some of these are already feeling out-of-date as we move relentlessly towards ways of making the end-product free à la Chris Anderson, and others are emerging, particularly in 4iP where we seek to marry revenue generation with public service value.

What’s missing from this list? What’s now redundant? Which of these are best for a new breed of self-sufficient sustainable public service media on the net?

Tip of the hat for spotting Rappa’s work to me’colleague Stuart.