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Economics vs. spam
From: "David Farber" <dave () farber net>
Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 13:47:07 -0500
how often overthe past years have I heard this idea. Does anyone read? Dave _______________ Forward Header _______________ Subject: Economics vs. spam Author: TClaburn () cmp com Date: 17th May 2005 9:48:34 am For IP if you wish... http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=YYTPPCPEOJ5Z2QSNDBGCKHSCJUMEKJVN?articleID=163104354 The War On Spam Takes A Novel Turn May 17, 2005 Professor Marshall Van Alstyne of Boston University School of Management has a plan to win the war on spam. He wants spammers to pay you for wasting your time. "We're really trying to give you back what is a property right in your own attention," he says. "Since interruptions are costly, what you're basically doing is asking the sender to make these interruptions worth your time." Technology companies impose a cost on spammers by blocking spam. The government imposes a cost on spammers by locking them up. But to date, the potential profit for spamming continues to exceed the likely cost. Spam continues because it pays. Leave it to an economist to price spammers out of the market. Van Alstyne describes his anti-spam scheme in "An Economic Response to Unsolicited Communication," a research paper co-authored by graduate students Thede Loder and Rick Wash that should be accepted by a prominent economics journal in a month or so. He is proposing an "Attention Bond Mechanism," money put up by E-mail senders as a form of spam insurance. In the paper, he argues that an attention bond designed to promote valuable communication can outperform technical solutions designed to block low-value content. Economics, in this theory at least, trumps technology. ... Thomas Claburn, Associate Editor InformationWeek, CMP Media, Inc. 600 Harrison St., 6th Floor San Francisco, CA 94107 tclaburn () cmp com 415.947.6820 http://www.informationweek.com http://www.lot49.com __________________________________________________________________________________________ Any views or opinions are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of CMP Media LLC, 600 Community Drive, Manhasset, NY 11030. The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient of this message please do not read, copy, use or disclose this communication and notify the sender immediately. It should be noted that any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking action or reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. __________________________________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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