Dave Morin

This morning, here at the Future of Web Apps Conference in Miami, prolific 37Signals founder Jason Fried made a call to the web community: “Please start charging for your applications. Free is not the future.” Jason’s essential thesis was that we have spent too much time building free applications on the internet. And, that if you choose to charge for your application, you will out-last your free competitors.

I couldn’t agree more. I was thinking pretty extensively about this last week as it relates to one of my favorite web applications, Dopplr. They are doing incredible things with their community, their experience, and their brand. They’ve also got one of the most talented engineering teams on the planet, led by my friend Matt Biddulph. Their most recent investors are world class, including Joi Ito, Esther Dyson, Tyler Brule of Monocle, and the guys from Index Ventures.

Since their launch as a niche travel social network for frequent travelers, they’ve consistently added features and content value that continues to surpass many other experiences on the web. Last year included an awesome Facebook Application, a focus on increasing travel serendipity, and This year has seen the addition of some amazing new features such as travel tips, travel questions, groups, and the ability to keep track of all of your trips retroactively.

Late last year they took it to a new level, blurring the lines between Web and print, by creating a personalized PDF for every user called a “Personal Annual Report.” The report was beautiful, fit to print, and Matt mentioned to me that it took them almost a week to run the script they needed to run in order to deliver it to everyone. And, they just recently launched a fantastic Dopplr Shop featuring great stuff for frequent travelers.

Suffice to say, Dopplr is one seriously bad ass web brand. And, I would pay for it.

As someone who is constantly traveling the world doing the work of an Internet citizen, the value they provide me of connecting me to similar travel oriented people, their opinions, and incredibly high quality (and truly) unique content, is invaluable.

I pay a $125 yearly subscription fee for Dopplr investor Tyler Brule’s new magazine Monocle for very similar reasons. Incredible brand, high quality content, community and experience. And, involvement from terrific people. All pointing to a brand that I can invest in for the long term.

I would gladly pay a yearly subscription for Dopplr at a fair price point. So this is my call to the Dopplr team. As I look out across the web landscape, they are the shining light that could help start an important trend. I urge them to consider.

Posted from Miami, Florida

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We are at Future of Web Apps Miami for the first half of this week talking about making the web more open and social. Ryan Carson and his crew at Carsonified puts on one of the highest quality most engaging conferences available in the world of the Internet. We’re very excited to be here giving two talks:

Keynote
The Search for a More Social Web: Facebook Connect, Openness, and Beyond.
Dave Morin

Workshop
Making Your Websites and Applications Social with Facebook Connect
Josh Elman

If you’re here in Miami, we look forward to seeing you and talking to you about what makes you passionate about building awesome things on the Internet. If you’re interested in following along with the fun via the Internet, check out hashtag

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This week we launched the first Social Widget for Facebook Connect, Comments. With Social Widgets, you’ll be able to make any site you’re working on social by simply dropping in a few lines of code. In this video, we show you how to add the Comment Widget to your site in 5 minutes. Click here if you’re interested in learning more.

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Here is another one of the best TED Talks from this year’s conference. Barry Schwartz’s argument for more practical wisdom. An argument against more rules (which create mediocrity) and excessive reliance on incentives (which demoralize professional activity).

But, most importantly (and to me personally) he argues that the most important virtue you can ever embody in your life is to: “Do the right thing.” Enjoy.

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My experience last week at TED was inspiring and humbling on many levels. There were so many incredible talks that it is hard to even put together a highlight post. But, one talk stood out above all of the rest and it looks like the TED Community whole heartedly agreed. Today the TED team posted Elizabeth Gilbert’s “A different way to think about creativity.” This talk is moving beyond words for anyone who lives the creative life every day.

Here it is. Enjoy.

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