Ease of Use is a major factor in Micropayment, but no one knows for sure how much of a factor it is.

My guess is that if all that stands between the user and paid-content was a hyperlink titled "Read for 25¢ IOU", most people will click through.  Actually billing takes place when the amount owed to a particular site goes over certain amount ($10 sounds reasonable).  At 25 cents, that's 40 articles you can read before you are asked to pay.  I would guess further that most people who like to read will opt to pay the bill even if they decided to stop reading content at the site.  If they refuse to pay, then service is degraded in some way for the user.

The scheme outlined above will exhibit different results depending on the type of content and target audience.

This summer was pretty nice.  A lot of fresh vegetables from our backyard.  I particularly like the fresh peppers.  Looking outside the office window, I saw that our Boochoo has grown too big.  It even has pretty flowers.  I think Boochoo flowers are a rare sight even for Koreans.

In case you are wondering, Boochoo might look like weeds but it is commonly found in Korean food. In fact, you can even make Kimchee with it called Boochoo Kimchee.  Delicious and, of course, very spicy.

"Dave" is going all out to turn BloggerCon 2003 into a major event for not only bloggers, but also politicians.  Check out his plan for a monster BOF on blog tools in Day 2 of BloggerCon.  Maybe even Dan Rather or Tom Brokaw will make a surprise audience to see how bloggers are impacting 2004 Presidential Election.

Yesterday, I had the urge to hop on the Howard Dean wagon.  It's not that I like Howard Dean.  I hardly know the man and what he stands for.  I just want Bush out of the White House and Howard Dean looks like best bet at this point.  Thankfully, I stopped myself by banging my head against the wall.

Besides, I feel that I already contributed with the Virtual Protest Ring Tone idea.  I doubt Bush will use the idea but I can see people sharing "Bush, You are Outta There!" ring tones.

My previous post on Virtual Protest and today being 9/11 made me think of Virtual Memorials.

A Virtual Memorial can be as rich as Star Wars Galaxy or EverQuest in full 3D or as simple as text-only MUD or MOO.  As long as it is immersive enough to captures the event in both space and time and let visitors interact with each other, technology doesn't matter.  Go there and maybe one can see the people who there and are no more.  Sit there along aside and experience the event unfold.

Inside the Virtual 9/11 Memorial, everyday is September 11th, 2001.  Inside Virtual Pearl Harbor Memorial, everyday is December 7th, 1941.  A place to go and remember the day.  Maybe share a line or two of thoughts with others.

Thinking about Virtual Memorials touched off another idea: using walls of virtual world as wiki pages.  Flipped it around and you have a wiki organized like a real world building along with some visual hints to enforce the building metaphor.  Such a wiki could be useful for conferences.