内容为王 2017-06-17
该文章是湾区日报推送的文章
by Bill Gates
date: 1/3/96
The television revolution that began half a century ago spawned a number of industries, including the manufacturing of TV sets, but the long-term winners were those who used the medium to deliver information and entertainment.
One of the exciting things about the Internet is that anyone with a PC and a modem can publish whatever content they can create. In a sense, the Internet is the multimedia equivalent of the photocopier. It allows material to be duplicated at low cost, no matter the size of the audience.
The Internet also allows information to be distributed worldwide at basically zero marginal cost to the publisher. Opportunities are remarkable, and many companies are laying plans to create content for the Internet.
If people are to be expected to put up with turning on a computer to read a screen, they must be rewarded with deep and extremely up-to-date information that they can explore at will. They need to have audio, and possibly video. They need an opportunity for personal involvement that goes far beyond that offered through the letters-to-the-editor pages of print magazines.
和「电视革命」类似，互联网最终的胜利者（盈利者）是内容生产者。任何人只要有一台个人电脑和调制解调器就可以将内容发布到互联网上，互联网就像是一个多媒体复印机，在极低的成本下进行传播。
但是要吸引用户在屏幕前阅读，互联网上的内容需要深度、及时更新的信息以满足用户的好奇心，而且内容形式需要丰富多样，如音频或视频。最好是个人定制化的。
For example, the Internet is already revolutionizing the exchange of specialized scientific information. Printed scientific journals tend to have small circulations, making them high-priced. University libraries are a big part of the market. It's been an awkward, slow, expensive way to distribute information to a specialized audience, but there hasn't been an alternative.
Now some researchers are beginning to use the Internet to publish scientific findings. The practice challenges the future of some venerable printed journals.
Over time, the breadth of information on the Internet will be enormous, which will make it compelling. Although the gold rush atmosphere today is primarily confined to the United States, I expect it to sweep the world as communications costs come down and a critical mass of localized content becomes available in different countries.
互联网即将准备变革专业化的科学信息交换模式。传统的科学杂志出版社面向小众市场，一般是大学的图书馆，但是价格极高。这是极其糟糕的，科学信息通过极其缓慢、高成本的途径才可以到达专业的受众，而且一直难以改变。
如今一些研究者尝试使用互联网发布他们的研究成果，这极大地威胁了这些传统的出版商的既得利益。
A major reason paying for content doesn't work very well yet is that it's not practical to charge small amounts. The cost and hassle of electronic transactions makes it impractical to charge less than a fairly high subscription rate.
But within a year the mechanisms will be in place that allow content providers to charge just a cent or a few cents for information. If you decide to visit a page that costs a nickel, you won't be writing a check or getting a bill in the mail for a nickel. You'll just click on what you want, knowing you'll be charged a nickel on an aggregated basis.
This technology will liberate publishers to charge small amounts of money, in the hope of attracting wide audiences.
Those who succeed will propel the Internet forward as a marketplace of ideas, experiences, and products-a marketplace of content.
为内容付费的主要障碍是在线付费手段繁复，但是随着付费机制优化会极大增强内容在互联网的力量。
（盖茨对于内容在互联网的作用和地位评价很乐观，但是在半导体硬件进展如此迅速的这几年，内容作为软件其地位并没有得到足够重视。最大的问题应该可以归结为两类，一类是「乔治·奥威尔」式，信息并不真的可以在互联网间畅通传递，而可以传递的信息也并没有得到足够的保护，很多盗版行为极大打击了内容生产者创作热情；一类是「赫胥黎」式，极大的垃圾无聊资讯充斥，人们毫不犹豫地跳到垃圾中丧失了发掘有价值信息的内容的能力，习惯了轻松浅层的阅读方式后，丧失了接受深度长文的耐心。而对于文中提及的科技专业信息传递方式变革，如今并不乐观。）
