What's a squeegee worth?
Imagine you were a window washer on one of those tall towers where you hang on the outside of a building washing the windows with your squeegee.
Imagine you were the guy no one liked to hang with because you carried a little your green bucket and squeegee everywhere you went. Even in your off hours.
How much would you say that squeegee is worth?
On September 11, riding up an express elevator in one of the twin towers, Jan Demczur carried his bucket with his metal squeegee. And it saved his and several lives that day.
He and those with him used it to pry open the elevator door, cut thru sheetrock, and escape the elevator shaft they were stuck in when the power went out (after being hit). It took them 90 minutes to escape. And within minutes of their escape, the tower came crashing down.
It saved his life. Now how much would you say that squeegee is worth?
How much would you spend on answers?
When I was a kid, the way we got answers to things was to look them up. We did that using the World Book Encyclopedia set my parents bought – on a payment plan.
On a payment plan.
You can buy it today on eBay for $75.
But it was the ability to send us to the encyclopedias that allowed my parents to encourage our curiosity. And it taught us a bit about researching and working for answers.
What's that worth? More than $75, right?
Today you don't need a set of encyclopedia's because there's Wikipedia – and they raise funds online.
“The Wikimedia Foundation raised $51 million USD in the 2013-14 fiscal year, including $37 million from more than 2.5 million donors through the foundations' s online fundraising.”
That's a lot more than $75.
Let's do one last thought experiment
For just a second, knowing what you know about the wildly successful Facebook. Or knowing what you know about the tons of internet forums that are out there.
What would you pay to get all the software behind it all?
What if you could build your own Facebook? Without coding?
What if you could build your own internet forum? Without coding?
How much would that be worth?
Some of you would spend tens of thousands.
Some might spend a few thousand.
Some a few hundred.
And some of you would say nothing. Because you don't find value in software.
But here's a crazy statistic.
There are over 7500 people who make their full time living (their yearly salaries) from working with free software like WordPress, BBPress, BuddyPress, and more.
Let's say each of them makes $20,000 a year. I know, a ridiculous amount.
That's $150 million dollars a year in salary – and that's a ridiculously conservative number.
So how much would you say that's worth?
Software that can help you live your own independent life – using code, delivering code to customers, or creating products with that code.
And today it's all free.
Which is amazing.
But with all that freedom comes responsibility, right?
Here's a simple way you can invest & give back!
My friend John James Jacoby (@jjj) is one of the guys behind some of this software. And he would like to invest more of his time to help make it even better. To do that, he's fundraising – but nothing like what Wikipedia does each year.
In fact, the amount, right now, is already down to $25,000.
So let me ask you this question. One you know is coming.
How much is it worth to you to have someone make this software better?
You're the only one who can determine value. (link to the campaign)
