Documentation site MDN will start including paid content
In one of his latest works, Peter Drucker warned about the need to change our way of understanding the economy. For centuries the rule was scarcity. Everyone demanding a resource that is difficult to obtain (Spices, oil). TO Since the arrival of the Internet, the fundamental resource that everyone demands is abundant; information.
This change gave rise to the question that reveals all of us who produce digital content How do we get people to pay for something they can get for free? In principle adding value to that content. If you're tired of watching badly subtitled or stolen movies with a camera hidden in a movie theater, you're going to be willing to pay for Netflix. If you've had enough of downloading fake Harry Potter novels, Amazon is the answer to your prayers. Spotify saves you hours of downloading torrents to get a topic that will only interest you for a month.
The question is Will MDN paid content have that added value?
What is MDN?
MDN is no longer an acronym, although it originally was. The M was for Mozilla and the rest of the letters were the English initials for developer network. Now called MDN Web Docs yes a repository of documentation and learning resources on open web design technologies powered by the aforementioned Mozilla, Microsoft, Google and Samsung. Some of the topics covered are: HTML5, JavaScript, CSS, Web APIs, Django, Node.js, WebExtensions, and MathML.
It is currently maintained by Mozilla and Google employees along with community volunteers.. So far it is financed by funds raised by an entity called Open Web Docs (OWD)
What is known about paid content on MDN?
In principle, the only thing we know officially is a few lines andn an entry Blog by Mozilla
We're always looking for ways to meet our users' needs, whether it's through free MDN web documentation or custom features. In the coming months, we'll be expanding MDN to include a premium subscription service based on feedback we receive from web developers who want to personalize their MDN experience. Stay tuned for more information on MDN Plus.
As is speculated en a german blog specialized in news about Mozilla, the service will start operating on March 9 in the following countries; Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Singapore.
The offering will include customization features, monthly articles written by industry experts delving into their specialty topics, an offline mode for offline access to our document collection from any device and notification of documentation changes.
According to the same blog, the cost will be 10 dollars per month or 100 per year.
Mozilla already tested some of these features for a fee last (European) summer.
My doubts
Let's go back to the Mozilla blog to see the reasons for the decision to create the paid subscription.
Last year we surveyed users and asked them what they wanted to get out of their MDN experience. The most requested features included notifications, article collections, and being able to use MDN offline. The general theme we saw was that users wanted to be able to organize MDN's vast library in a way that worked for them.
I missed the part where they say how much they're willing to pay for it.
I don't know how good the articles published by the experts are. But let's be honest. Within two days they will be freely available somewhere. As for the offline mode, there are programs that are responsible for downloading complete websites. It's a matter of taking the trouble to use them.
Regarding the cost. It can be compared to the subscription service of PacktPub that For $9,99 a month, you get access to over 7500 computer science books and videos. However, it is cheaper than the monthly subscription to most online learning platforms.
Will it be worth paying for paid content on MDN? It will depend on how good the content is.