2009 was not as big of a year for Internet and information technology (“info-tech”) policy books as 2008 was, but there were still some notable titles released that offered interesting perspectives about the future of the Net and the impact the Digital Revolution is having on our lives, culture, and economy. So, like last year, I figured I would throw together my list of the 10 most important info-tech policy books of the year.
First, let me repeat a few of the same caveats and disclaimers that I set forth last year. What qualifies as an “important” info-tech policy book? Simply put, it’s a title that many people are currently discussing and that we will likely be referencing for many years to come. However, I want to be clear that merely because a book appears on my list it does not necessarily mean I agree with everything said in it. In fact, as was the case in previous years, I found much with which to disagree in my picks for the most important books of 2009 and I find that the cyber-libertarianism I subscribe to has very few fans out there.
Another caveat: Narrowly-focused titles lose a few points on my list. For example, if a book deals mostly with privacy issues, copyright law, or antitrust policy, it does not exactly qualify as the same sort of “tech policy book” as other titles found on this list since it is a narrow exploration of just one set of issues with a bearing on technology policy.
With those caveats in mind, here are my choices for the Most Important Info-Tech Policy Books of 2009. Continue reading →
I just finished reading through The Economist’s new 14-page special report on cloud computing, “Let It Rise” in which Ludwig Siegele provides an outstanding overview of cloud computing and why it is so important:
The rise of the cloud is more than just another platform shift that gets geeks excited. It will undoubtedly transform the information technology (IT) industry, but it will also profoundly change the way people work and companies operate. It will allow digital technology to penetrate every nook and cranny of the economy and of society, creating some tricky political problems along the way.
Even if you are very familiar with cloud computing, I recommend you take a look at the article. Anyway, while I was reading it, I was unsurprised to come across some comments from Nicholas Carr, whose new book
The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google, is essentially an early history of cloud computing and an investigation into its effects on our economy, culture, and society. And that also reminded me that, even though I have mentioned Carr’s book here several times since it was released earlier this year, I have failed to give it a dedicated review. And it certain deserves one because “The Big Switch” is easily one of the most important technology policy books of 2008.
Continue reading →
[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
|
Mark Cuban
|
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?
Continue reading →
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.