the Onda

I like output based business models. It's no secret that there is something special and extra nice about being at that point where bits get turned into atoms and then charging for the experience. It's simple, it's clean, and it leverages all sort of good things about computers (customization), the Internet (a channel), and technology (mass customization). Whether it's custom clothing, books-on-demand, or some of the other interesting things we've got planned at Tabblo, the era of mass customization is definitely here to stay.

Which is why it's been a little depressing to make the rounds in Silicon Valley over the last 12 months– at the epicenter of the Google AdWords inspired haze– and see people look blankly at me when I get going about the pleasure of actually making things. The world there has turned into a hammer made of eyeballs and just about everything looks like ad inventory. Today it looks like Yahoo is proving that even in virtual goods, the laws of supply and demand take effect– and when there is not enough demand (and too much supply), the market corrects. Is it the beginning of the end for this new mini Web 2.0 bubble? Doubtful, mostly because advertising is not going anywhere but online (though it may be quite slimmed its life there). But it is nice to see that we may get some attention paid to two other types of business models in the coming months: those that are output based and those that are subscription based. There are a lot of talented folks at the big media companies that have spent far too much good brainpower "enhancing ad inventory" or "maximizing click-through rates" and it is going to be nice to see these guys get into another groove for a while.

Case in point: Moo.com and their mass-customized businesscards, launched just today. A really nice, really light-weight application for repurposing your Flickr stream for a simple (and compelling) product. Photo-like businesscards aren't for everyone, but the experience of leveraging the investment made into Flickr for something completely physical will only get better over time and it's good to see Moo taking this first step.

Also, kudos to Flickr/Yahoo for letting this type of creative experimentation bloom on their platform. Because it has been non-core to their ad business, they've let folks like Moo (and us) experiment on top of their APIs without the onerous requirement that a revenue-sharing infrastructure might impose at this early stage. In my mind, this will be the greatest legacy of the online advertising boom– it has seeded the fields for what comes after it in much the same way that the PC software boom (and its associated hardware advances/commoditization) laid the groundwork for the open source movement and for cheap scale-out datacenter infrastructure.

And when the time is right, I've no doubt that we'll be able to give back to the folks that let us into the playground in an economically meaningful way.