The proliferation and circulation of digital information goods,or digital content in the age of the global Internet, is seenby many as fostering creativity and stimulating innovationin ways not possible in the industrial era. For the traditionaldistributors of content—the media and entertainment industry,book, journal and newspaper publishers—however, thispotential for mass participation and the ability to find orreceive information, to interact, to contribute, or to participatewithout need for the traditional mediators marks an end tobusiness as usual. But, we argue this does not mark an end tobusiness. Openness to collaboration and sharing, and accessto all manner of digital content challenge deeply held beliefsabout the nature of property and social relations of production. At the same time, they present anopportunity to innovate business processes and to createnew services and models for the production, distribution, andconsumption of knowledge and other creative artifacts. Theauthors will present a number of emerging business modelsand processes, drawing on examples from the creative andpublishing industries in particular. Openness, we argue, is abroad strategic framework that fosters new possibilities foreconomic sustainability, cross-media development, publicfunding, and above all, innovation in this dynamic andgrowing sector of the global economy.
