Introduction to Open Content Business

Traditional business models of the creative industries are built on the protection of content. With the advent of an Internet culture where content is ‘sold’ at a price of zero and sharing is a key paradigm, that model seems not to be fully adequate any longer. Even more, there might be a time when content alone won’t pay anymore. Business model innovation on top of and around (open) content can be the answer to that challenge.

This article looks at open content business models, explores examples and generally collects items that as elements of an infrastructure or otherwise add leverage to the idea of making money with free.

The full article was published in Supporting Service Innovation Through Knowledge Management by Patricia Wolf, Sami Kazi, Peter Troxler and Ralf Jonischkeit (eds.) Bristol: KnowledgeBoard, Zurich: Swiss Knowledge Management Forum, 2009. It is available through SSRN.