SXSW 2009: 'Free for All' with Chris Anderson and Guy Kawasaki

Chris Anderson, he of Wired fame and current purveyor of 'free', sat down to be interviewed by Alltop founder and self-marketing professional guru and Silicon Valley VC Guy Kawasaki on Tuesday to discuss the future of 'free' at SXSW 2009.

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But one need not have been in physical proximity to monsieurs A & K in order to derive meaning from the proceedings. A well-populated stream of #sxsw + #free tweets percolated through the unpaid channels of the interwebs allowing (nearly) universal access into the insightful minds of two of the web's leading chatterboxes.

Not to be outdone by last year's keynote train wreck, the pair began by stating that they were "going to be better than Sarah Lacy and Mark Zuckerberg". Zing!

Let's recap, shall we?

Q: So...this whole internet thing is pretty competitive, huh?
Anderson: "The Internet is the most competitive market the world has ever seen."

Q: Ok. So how do I make money?
Anderson: "Use piracy to create celebrity, use celebrity to make cash."

Q: Hmm. Does that mean I should sell out?
Kawasaki: "You can sell out, I just want to rent myself."

Q: Ok, but I don't really get this whole 'free' business...
Anderson: "The word free is one of the most misunderstood words in the world."

Q: But I can still charge for my product, right?
Anderson: "If you do not make your product free, piracy will do it for you."

Q: So you're saying everything should be free?
Anderson: "Some information wants to be free, and some wants to be very expensive."

Q: Riiight....but the economy is tanking. You're saying 'free' is my ticket to success?
Anderson: "Now is a great time to start a company."

Q: Cool. So I can send you some materials about my company? You do that too, don't you?
Kawasaki: "If I do it, it's clever marketing. If someone sends it to me, it's spam."

Q: Oh right, sorry. So where should I go then?
Anderson: "China is the future of free."

Ok thanks. That's helpful. I'm going to go give some stuff away now.