In Andersen's article about the evolution of a free market, I was once again struck by the concept that not only money, but attention and reputation are forms of currency because of their connection to providing audiences to advertisers. The idea that anything that, eventually, leads to dollars can be sold, is something that may be difficult for some people to grasp, especially investors, but it should be something that everyone interested in the future of their economy should look into.
However, this shift from the mind-set of "scarcity" to a mindset of "abundance" should not cause us to give up on the concepts of quality and judgment that have helped to build the reputations that we now enjoy. If one of the scarcities that Andersen still recognizes is that of reputation, it is even more vitally important that information providers ensure the quality of the information they provide so as to improve their reputation and capture more audience attention. It is true that with the sheer amount of information available, it is impossible to prevent things of a low-quality nature from being published and consumed. And many times people understand the restrictions to creating high-quality material in certain circumstances. It's presence does not mean that it will be consumed, the the potential it has for acquiring an individual's attention is worth more than the space it occupies on a company website or server. In this way I agree with Andersen and the argument he makes. However, where possible, the quality of information should still be high on the priority list for business and content providers.
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