OK, so I’m really looking forward to the book, but meantime Chris takes the time to draw a few handy diagrams of “The Three Kinds of Free”.

Of course, not everyone is a fan of the concept. As Chris points out, 37Signals have a different take: charge for your products, dummy.

I think the notion of Free undoubtedly allows many niche offerings to thrive and offers potential revenue streams where there may be the perception that there were none. “Free” models are probably just the tip of the iceberg in terms of “emerging business models that are likely to work on the web as we realise we need to think hard about the changing world we live in” and Chris seems to have a knack for spotting/articulating those emerging trends.

On the flip side though, is it just a perception?

Who stands to gain from maintaining the perception that web services and products should be free because they won’t sell directly? Or that software has no value?

As a developer, do you think that what you do has no value? I don’t.