MicrostockGroup

Free only works as long as money lasts. Eventually the people offering the free stuff run out of money to support it and then they beg for money (Ken Rockwell), continue it as a side business (MSG?), start charging for it (Istock), or let it die (take your pick).

Printed encyclopedias have been devalued because there are other free offerings like Wikipedia but also because most people these days now expect instant information. Take a second to search online or try digging through a collection of printed encyclopedias.

One day most credible information on the internet will cost something. We're in a transition right now. Companies who don't figure out how to make the transition and also produce the best content will disappear.

Look at all of the newspapers who laughed 10 years ago when anyone said the internet would replace them.

Not to mention that printed encyclopedias become obsolete the minute they are printed.

As a kid in around 1970 or 71 my husband had to write a report on Martin Luther King Jr.  He used his parents' 1967 set if encyclopedias, so unfortunately he omitted Dr. King's assassination!

(guess at around 8 years old he wasn't up on current events)

In fact I think they are adjusting, with encyclopedia CDs for US$30 or less, including access to their website for an year. If I had kids on school, I would try that.  I am even considering that even for the fun of it - I always liked encyclopedias. 

While I agree with you and the above, there's one free resource that I used over the "Cliff Notes" version of information, AKA encyclopedia. Libraries are still free and a great resource for people looking for in depth information and doing even a tiny bit of real research. Whole books on one subject.

Good points about newspapers, which are still trying to make the transition but I think most haven't got a clue and are a little bit late on picking up on how it all works. 

Stock photos have fallen to the simple economics of supply and demand, plus some lively competition. It will all sort out someday, but prices will never be what they used to be before affordable high quality digital cameras. Some still argue that film is better, but then some would argue that a horse and carriage is better than a car.

A bunch of photographers happened to be talking cameras and film at a race last weekend and we were all lamenting the loss of professional camera stores. Soon we won't be able to get our frozen film processed, and they already stopped making most print paper for film. Color labs are gone. Just another effect of the Internet and digital equipment. Need an enlarger or a film processing machine? There are many sitting idle.

I've just had a wonderfull read of this older thread.  But really most summizing are just wild guesses. 

The simple thing is that nobody knows where this whole movement will end up.  The only certainty is that change will occur, and the rate of technology advance will ensure that the changes will be massive and probably in unexpected directions.

It has happened for centuries - technonogy changes the world, buit now the pace of change is simply breathtaking. We'd better get used to it though, coz it ain't gunna slow down  - quite the reverse.  And there will always be deniers who have a head-in-sand view of their little part of the world - best revisit the Luddites - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite.