Alex Reid

Four bands and four filmmakers.

Support the infamous Cinematheque at the West End Cultural Centre this Thursday, June 2nd (tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door). Music by John K Samson, Nathan, The Jaxon 3 & The Shallow End. Images by Mike Maryniuk, Heidi Phillips, Clint Enns & Aaron Zeghers.

Last July, New York City Mayor Bloomberg launched a new initiative called NYC Digital with the goal “to create a healthier civil society and stronger democracy through the use of technology that engages, serves, and connects New Yorkers.”

The first task of NYC Digital was to research and present a State of the Digital Union, per se, for the city. That report was released last week: “Roadmap for the Digital City: Achieving New York City’s Digital Future.”

The report pulls together everything the city wants to provide; from events calendar to a city license application process; how people found their web site; and how people can better engaged using services like Foursquare and Twitter. It’s all designed to be a super-311.

New York City is making a lot of headway here, hopefully cities like Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto and Ottawa are not far behind.

Canada’s Privacy Commissioner has just released the final report of her Office’s consultations on the subject of Online Tracking, Profiling and Targeting, and Cloud Computing.

Jennifer Stoddart said:

“Most people have no idea about the rich trail of data they leave behind when they browse the Internet, use social networking sites, or engage the geo-location functions of their mobile devices,” the Commissioner said.

Organizations that track the online activities of Canadians must be more upfront about their practices, Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart has concluded… “it comes down to meaningful consent, which entails informed consent”.

Marco Arment, the creator of the iPhone app Instapaper recently removed the free version of his iPhone application to see a bump in paid sales.

He also points out that having a free version and a paid version of an application means that you have to maintain two different configurations and decide what limitations will be in a free version. You can’t know what features are people willing to pay for and not pay for, until you’ve gone public.

Most of all, Arment learned that a constant free offering attracts “undesirable customers” who expect full support and full features for free, adding that free applications attracts “unreasonable, incomprehensible, or inflammatory reviews” from practically anyone.

I don’t need every customer. I’m primarily in the business of selling a product for money. How much effort do I really want to devote to satisfying people who are unable or extremely unlikely to pay for anything?

If you want your product to be valued, you need to set a price tag to it. Arment notes that if people are willing to drop $50 on a new case, they will most likely “risk” a $5 purchase.

Of course there are good reasons to offer your application for free, especially if you’re trying to build a portfolio in the big picture and long term. But ultimately a price tag will be necessary if you want to get paid for your work and investment. In short, many developers think they need to give away their services or products for free to attract business but it’s not business if you’re not getting paid.