On my lunch break today I decided I wanted a coffee, then I decided I wanted to read a newspaper whilst drinking my coffee, so I popped to the newsagent and purchased The Times with cold hard cash. As I sat there reading my newspaper I also pondered recent debates about newspaper sites going behind paywalls to monetise their offerings and keep the quality of journalism high. I must admit that I find the political slant of many newspapers in the UK, be it left of right, annoying because they don’t stick to the editorials for their favoured political leanings, they include it in news stories too, but that’s a different issue for a different day.
The newspaper industry in some quarters bemoans the rise of blogs and self publishing and I have some sympathy with them here, my grammatical skills pale into insignificance compared to a well qualified, well trained, well experienced journalist. I don’t possess their literary skills. However instead of criticising bloggers and self publishers, they should be looking at the bigger picture, the simple fact of the matter is that I can’t pay for an online publication in the fashion I did today for a physical copy of a newspaper and that’s why online publications are in some quarters, finding it difficult to go forward.
The newspaper industry is crying out for a micro transaction system and they should take a look at how Second Life have achieved this as the template for moving forward. In Second Life, once I have my Linden Dollars in my virtual wallet, I can spend those Linden Dollars as I see fit. I don’t have to signup for subscriptions that I’m not going to use and I can purchase items on a whim, without having to enter my credit card details again and again and again.
The signup is a block to many online ventures, Second Life loses people at signup, people dither and then decide to move along. However the beauty of the micro transaction system in Second Life is that once I’m inside it, I have choice and ease of purchase.
Of course it’s a shame that Second Life isn’t able to deliver a media rich reading application inworld. I know many people will say that if they want to read newspapers, they would rather be doing it via an app or online but people do read inside Second Life and if Second Life could deliver that media rich reading application, then the micro transaction system is already here.
These sort of currencies will surely eventually arrive to enhance our online experiences, the credits that are mentioned in so many Sci Fi stories will be within our virtual hands at some point, they are currently in their infancy but the Second Life model exemplifies oh so well how well these micro transactions can work.
Obviously once a micro transaction system is here, the tax system will soon follow, so a widely accepted micro transaction system will be disruptive in very many ways but that’s something we will need to embrace, whether we like it or not. However Second Life has a proven track record of demonstrating how it can work, our pennies could be usefully utilised at some point in the future far beyond Second Life and virtual worlds.