[Sigia-l] norman/nielsen-reports in library?

[Jared M. Spool]

At 11:55 AM 2/1/2006, Theodore Waxman wrote:
>i wonder if he would gain more scientific rep if he would make his 
>profound reports available to  the interested public?

I can't speak for NNG, but we're in a similar situation with our reports. 
We have content we sell and content we give away for free. Deciding what 
content goes where is a constant challenge for us.

In our case, we're using the revenues generated from the reports (and our 
events and advisory services) to fund more research to produce more value 
to the community. If we gave away everything for free, we couldn't pay for 
new research. (We've considered going with a donation model, ala wikipedia, 
but we're very afraid we wouldn't raise enough.)

For us, the cost of conducting new research comes to millions of dollars 
each year. We try to price our reports as reasonably as possible, while 
still looking to them to generate a significant portion of the funding. 
It's always a balance. (We allow libraries to purchase a single group 
license for use by all their constituents. Also, we make our reports 
available for graduate and undergraduate course work for free. We feel this 
provides great benefits to both the community and our business.)

Jared


Jared M. Spool, Founding Principal, User Interface Engineering
4 Lookout Lane, Unit 4d, Middleton, MA 01949
978 777-9123   jspool at uie.com  http://www.uie.com
Blog: http://www.uie.com/brainsparks