Free Republic

A French diplomat competing to be the world’s top health official says a tiny international tax can help fill the World Health Organization’s coffers, a proposal aimed at bringing order to the U.N. agency’s fragmented budget. Dr. Philippe Douste-Blazy told journalists at the Foreign Ministry in Paris that “micropayments” tacked on to as-yet-undetermined international business operations could support WHO’s budget. “I’m persuaded that innovative financing can play a role in the support of WHO,” he said. …

The internet has witnessed the conversion of analog advertising dollars into digital advertising pennies (credit due to Jeff Zucker at NBC (GE) for “coining” that metaphor). Despite the fact that a viewer is always just a “click away” on the internet, online advertisements command only a fraction of the cost of far less measurable media – like print, radio, and television. Consider this: an advertisement on MySpace (NWS) might cost $.25 to show to 1,000 people ($.25 CPM), versus $25 for 1,000 readers of Time (TWX) magazine ($25 CPM). In the good old days of performance-less advertising, engagement didn’t really...

NEW YORK - An idea that seemingly evaporated along with dot-com mania is back: that the Internet would realize its full grass-roots potential if Web surfers could pay small amounts for tidbits of online content. Several companies are again betting they can mine gold from ferrying around such "micropayments." Even credit card giant Visa USA is exploring the prospect. Boosters believe people could sell countless new creations on the Internet — from essays to advice — if only mechanisms existed to facilitate small payments. For authors of popular content, all those pennies would add up. The problem, as things currently...