[Note: I updated this discussion and chart in a subsequent essay. See: “Are You An Internet Optimist or Pessimist? The Great Debate over Technology’s Impact on Society.”]
A number of very interesting books have been released over the past year or two which debate how the Internet is reshaping our culture and the economy. I’ve reviewed a couple of them here but I have been waiting to compile a sort of mega-book review once I found a sensible way to conceptually group them together. I’m not going to have time to cover each of them here in the detail they deserve, but I think I have at least found a sensible way to categorize them. For lack of better descriptors, I’ve divided these books and thinkers into two camps: “Internet optimists” versus “Internet Pessimists.” Here’s a list of some of the individuals and books (or other articles and blogs) that I believe epitomize these two camps of thinking:
Adherents & Their Books / Writings
|
Internet Optimists |
Internet Pessimists |
|
Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks |
Andrew Keen, The Cult of the Amateur |
|
Chris Anderson, The Long Tail and “Free!” |
Lee Siegel, Against the Machine |
|
Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody |
Nick Carr, The Big Switch |
|
Cass Sunstein, Infotopia |
Cass Sunstein, Republic.com |
|
Don Tapscott, Wikinomics |
Todd Gitlin, Media Unlimited |
|
Kevin Kelly & Wired mag in general |
Alex Iskold, “The Danger of Free” |
|
Mike Masnick & TechDirt blog |
And here’s a rough sketch of the major beliefs or key themes that separate these two schools of thinking about the impact of the Internet on our culture and economy:
Beliefs / Themes
|
Internet Optimists |
Internet Pessimists |
|
Culture / Social |
|
|
Net is Participatory |
Net is Polarizing |
|
Net yields Personalization |
Net yields Fragmentation |
|
a “Global village” |
Balkanization |
|
Heterogeneity / Diversity of Thought |
Homogeneity / Close-mindedness |
|
Net breeds pro-democratic tendencies |
Net breeds anti-democratic tendencies |
|
Tool of liberation & empowerment |
Tool of frequent misuse & abuse |
|
|
|
|
Economics / Business |
|
|
Benefits of “free” (“Free” = future of media / business) |
Costs of “free” (“Free” = end of media / business) |
|
Increasing importance of “Gift economy” |
Continuing importance of property rights, profits, firms |
|
“Wiki” model = wisdom of crowds; power of collective intelligence |
“Wiki” model = stupidity of crowds; errors of collective intelligence |
|
Mass collaboration |
Individual effort |
So, what to make of this intellectual war? Who’s got the story right?
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