Two days ago I wrote a post explaining why I am bullish on crowdfunding and skeptical on micropayments as an alternative to funding content, especially journalism. The explanation was a bit dry and abstract, but in the comments I provided a more concrete example that seemed to resonate, so here it is:Would you pay $2 for a joke you haven’t heard yet? No because you don’t know if it will be funny. What is your incentive to pay after you have heard the joke? It is much diminished. What about 1 ...

Two days ago I wrote a post explaining why I am bullish on crowdfunding and skeptical on micropayments as an alternative to funding content, especially journalism. The explanation was a bit dry and abstract, but in the comments I provided a more concrete example that seemed to resonate, so here it is:Would you pay $2 for a joke you haven’t heard yet? No because you don’t know if it will be funny. What is your incentive to pay after you have heard the joke? It is much diminished. What about 1 ...

The rollout of iOS 9 and along with it adblocking plugins for mobile Safari has re-ignited the debate over the ethics of removing ads from pages. Marco Arment who released the paid Peace adblocker previously wrote a piece laying out his views arguing that publishers have crossed a line with ads and trackers that are too intrusive and disruptive. In response there are now pieces bemoaning the end of independent publishers and the web altogether. And inevitably micropayments are proposed as an ...

The rollout of iOS 9 and along with it adblocking plugins for mobile Safari has re-ignited the debate over the ethics of removing ads from pages. Marco Arment who released the paid Peace adblocker previously wrote a piece laying out his views arguing that publishers have crossed a line with ads and trackers that are too intrusive and disruptive. In response there are now pieces bemoaning the end of independent publishers and the web altogether. And inevitably micropayments are proposed as an ...

I will be the first to admit that I am a sucker for a good listicle. That’s probably a result of being overly prone to making lists myself. I am also not offended by native advertising per se. After all it completely predates the internet. Thumbing through pretty much any fashion magazine or one of the glossy local publications like “Westchester” will make that instantly evident. All of this is to say that I am happy for Jonah Peretti and the folks at Buzzfeed about the recent financing led b...

I will be the first to admit that I am a sucker for a good listicle. That’s probably a result of being overly prone to making lists myself. I am also not offended by native advertising per se. After all it completely predates the internet. Thumbing through pretty much any fashion magazine or one of the glossy local publications like “Westchester” will make that instantly evident. All of this is to say that I am happy for Jonah Peretti and the folks at Buzzfeed about the recent financing led b...

Our elected representatives are busy at work coming up with misguided laws. Leading the charge once again is Lamar Smith, this time proposing to replace peer review of NSF grants with congressional criteria (Congress of course is not exactly known for its scientists). Now that is not to say that we shouldn’t look into how NSF funding works and propose changes to it. For instance, with crowdfunding platforms for science like Mircoryza emerging, it would be interesting to see if these can be us...

Our elected representatives are busy at work coming up with misguided laws. Leading the charge once again is Lamar Smith, this time proposing to replace peer review of NSF grants with congressional criteria (Congress of course is not exactly known for its scientists). Now that is not to say that we shouldn’t look into how NSF funding works and propose changes to it. For instance, with crowdfunding platforms for science like Mircoryza emerging, it would be interesting to see if these can be us...