The value of our own intellectual property and giving some piece of it away to pay for free apps is all the rage with social media and cloud computing gaining so much traction.

The price is actually pretty high and, as you’ve so eloquently stated, people only think of the dollars and cents.

Even with a user fee and commitment to complete data privacy, would there be any guarantee that Google, Facebook or Twitter still wouldn’t leverage your data?

Social sharing aside, it’s human nature to believe that if something is free, its value is very low. If a price tag is put on it, it increases the value because it has provided a measure.

Yes, the great mass expects free. But increasingly, segments are recognizing that it’s not really free. Your information has a value, as does your attention (for marketing purposes).

I think many will start calculating when seeking out specific information — not what Paris Hilton did or said yesterday, but real information. And they’ll recognize that a modest price is in fact cheaper than “free”.