So far in 2012 my mantra has been “little, and often”.
I decided not to make any New Year’s resolutions, but instead to make changes to the way in which I might do the things I already do. Perhaps not surprisingly, this has had a far more radical impact upon the amount I’ve been able to get done just in the past week or so – and even if I completely fall off the wagon tomorrow, I’ve managed to give myself quite a head start this year.
I started by going back to a system I came up with a couple of years ago: The 30-Day Calendar. I printed a few off, put individual task names at the top of each page and started putting a big X in the appropriate square each time I did the day’s task. However, it occurred to me that there must by now be some way of managing such a system using something a bit more sophisticated than a piece of paper and a sharpie pen.
And of course, there is.
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Tagged: gtd
- Published:
- January 10, 2012 – 7:02 pm
- Author:
- By dubber
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I’m going to be speaking at Un-Convention Voices at the Roundhouse in London on Saturday the 11th of February.
It’s a joint event running in parallel with The Museum of Modern Art in Medellin, Colombia, that features a day of panels, conversations, debates, performances and interactive sessions on the theme of political voices and social messages in hip hop, spoken word, social media, art and culture.
It’s an impressive line-up: presenters include Kate Tempest, Soweto Kinch, Gilles Peterson, Blak Twang, Steve Ignorant, Roxxxan and more – with performances from Cassette Boy, live hip hop from Colombia and an exhibition of The Art of Protest, including works by Banksy, images from John and Yoko’s bed-in, and lots more besides.
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Tagged: London, unconvention
- Published:
- January 8, 2012 – 4:17 pm
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- By dubber
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I ended up having a lot of really interesting conversations about the ‘pay whatever you want (including free)’ pricing model for digital goods (usually abbreviated to PWYW) over the past 24 hours as a response to my blog post about why I had selected to make my book Music in the Digital Age available with a free option.
A friend of mine who works as an economist in the private sector sent me his 2005 analysis of the pricing model and has agreed to let me make it available to you here. If you don’t have an economics background (I don’t) then it might be a little heavy going – but the conclusion appears to be that “pay what you think it’s worth” is pretty good for businesses and consumers alike.
Here’s the précis:
There are many market structures where it is possible for a firm to produce a quantity consistent with the quantity that would be produced if the firm decided to produce where price is equal to marginal cost (P=MC). However, there are few market structures where it is reasonable to expect a firm to produce at this social optimal level. Firms are motivated by profit maximisation and therefore it is only reasonable to expect them to produce a P=MC quantity when profit maximisation is simultaneously achieved by it. This essay shall examine some market structures where it might be reasonable to expect a P=MC quantity and then consider the impact of each of these on consumer welfare, considering specifically perfect competition, some monopoly models and the Bertrand oligopoly model.
And here’s the PDF of his essay.
Tagged: economy, pwyw
- Published:
- January 5, 2012 – 9:23 am
- Author:
- By dubber
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I published my ‘work in progress’ book Music in the Digital Age yesterday and had a bit of a play around with the recommended price. The minimum, however, was zero from the outset and I was quite keen that this be the case.
On average, about a third of the people checking the book out have paid money for it. Most of them have paid $5 as suggested, though a few have paid $10 and a couple only $1. Everyone else has downloaded it for free and they’re more than welcome to. The fact that people have paid me money to make this – any amount of money at all – and have devoted their attention to the words that I’ve written so far – is incredible motivation for me to complete it, and to do whatever I can to make it as good as it can be.
I ended up having conversations about price yesterday. One centred around psychological theories about why $5 seemed to be the right ‘suggested price’ point. Nobody paid anything when the suggested price was $7.99 – but many did when it was lowered to a round number – even though at both times, you could simply type in whatever number you thought was fair and appropriate. Other conversations varied between ‘why would you give something like this away for free?’ to ‘how can you justify charging money for something you haven’t finished?’.
It’s been an interesting process and it’s challenged my own thinking about online commerce and the pricing of digital creative works. But this morning I received an email from someone who more or less encapsulated for me exactly the reasons why I wanted my book to be available for nothing – and (with permission, and anonymised) I want to share some of that email with you.
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Tagged: MitDA, retail
- Published:
- January 4, 2012 – 10:24 am
- Author:
- By dubber
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I’ve been working on and off for the past few months on a book I’ve decided to call ‘Music in the Digital Age‘.
My intention is to finish it this year – and because the year is going to be a busy one (not least because of my commitment to writing another book called Radio in the Digital Age), I’ve decided to give myself a bit of an extra incentive.
So I’ve published the book. Launched it today. It may not be finished – but it’s available here now. You can go and download it whenever you feel like it. Pay whatever you want (including free). It’s available as a PDF, and in iPad and Kindle-friendly versions.
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Tagged: MitDA, nms
- Published:
- January 3, 2012 – 7:30 pm
- Author:
- By dubber
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Jake has just released the fourth of his series of albums from 2011. That’s it there. Have a listen.
It’s a bit of a landmark, because it marks the end of a major project for him. The idea was that he would just collect together everything that he’d finished at the end of every three-month period, compile it in a pleasing order, and put it up for free download (or pay, if you prefer) on Bandcamp.
His intention was simply to get better at making electronic music. He calls it ‘growing up in public’. It works.
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Tagged: Jake
- Published:
- January 3, 2012 – 10:45 am
- Author:
- By dubber
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There’s a tradition in our family. Whoever leaves home or moves to a new house gets ‘the tacky box’.
The tacky box is just what it sounds like – a box full of stuff nobody really wants, but is actually kind of useful when you’re moving into a new place – especially if you’re just starting out and moving away from home for the first time.
For instance, the tacky box is likely to include old, chipped and mismatched mugs and plates. It’ll have cutlery that does not appear to be part of a set. It might have a spare iron or an old coffee maker in it. There’ll be a bottle opener and corkscrew – but also some frayed blankets, old pillows – and maybe even a deck of cards. Sometimes some non-perishable foodstuffs end up in there for good measure.
Contributions to the tacky box are welcomed from the extended family, and cousins are just as likely to end up with the tacky box as siblings. There’s one tacky box. It’s just to get you started. You use the tacky box, you’ll take some things out and keep them, and you’ll put other unwanted but potentially useful things in.
But the time will come to pass it on.
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- Published:
- January 2, 2012 – 6:00 pm
- Author:
- By dubber
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My Internet use is likely to be quite different in 2012. For the past month or so, I’ve been evaluating what I do online, and actively cutting down on some stuff. I’ve closed my account with almost thirty services I no longer want to be involved with. Today, that’s culminated in the deletion of my Facebook account.
It takes 14 days to completely delete a Facebook account. It’s a sort of ‘grace’ period – in case you change your mind and want to log in for some reason. My 14 days was up last night. I’ve started the new year as a (delighted) non-member of Facebook. There are lots of reasons for that, and I’m sure there’s a conversation to be had about why to use or not use Facebook. It’s not for me. I hope that doesn’t offend anyone.
But what I actually want to talk about is the fact that this is not an “information diet”. I know that’s a popular thing at the moment, and I can understand the interest in Clay Johnson’s new book of that name, but that’s not what I’m doing.
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Tagged: Facebook
- Published:
- January 1, 2012 – 6:51 pm
- Author:
- By dubber
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Heaven is not a place guarded by immigration officials interested only in passports and certificates, nor is it the higher class to which we are promoted by passing an examination showing what we have learned in this world. Heaven is this world as it appears to the awakened imagination, and those who try to approach it by way of restraint, caution, good behaviour, fear, self-satisfaction, assent to uncomprehended doctrines, or voluntary drabness, will find themselves travelling toward hell, as Ignorance did in Bunyan, hell being similarly this world as it appears to the repressed imagination.
- NORTHROP FRYE (1947) Fearful Symmetry: A study of William Blake, Princeton University Press
Tagged: Book
- Published:
- December 31, 2011 – 5:18 pm
- Author:
- By dubber
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I have a book out from the library. It’s a little overdue. Actually, it’s about eight years overdue. I suspect they’ve cancelled my Auckland Public Library membership by now.
The book is called ‘The Shoestring Pirates’ by Adrian Blackburn. It’s the true account (more or less) of four men who set sail to establish a pirate radio station on an old ship anchored in a small triangle of what was deemed to be a patch of ‘international waters’ in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf – as the result of what can only be described as an accident of cartography.
They broadcast pop tunes as well as friendly and hip DJ banter – not to mention commercials and, on occasion, distress calls, for about four years (actually 1111 days, believe it or not) before finally being given a legal licence to broadcast on land.
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Tagged: Auckland, Book, hauraki, New Zealand, Radio
- Published:
- December 30, 2011 – 11:23 pm
- Author:
- By dubber
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