Product Description

In The Future of the Internet: And How to Stop It Jonathan Zittrain explores the dangers the internet faces if it fails to balance ever more tightly controlled technologies with the flow of innovation that has generated so much progress in the field of technology. Zittrain argues that today’s technological market is dominated by two contrasting business models: the generative and the non-generative. The generative models – the PCs, Windows and Macs of this world – allow third parties to build upon and share through them. The non-generative model is more restricted; appliances such as the xbox, iPod and tomtom might work well, but the only entity that can change the way they operate is the vendor. If we want the internet to survive we need to change. People must wake up to the risk or we could lose everything.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #86639 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
'A superb and alarming discussion, from one of the most astute and forward-looking analysts of the Internet. Zittrain explains how the glorious promise of the Internet might not be realized - and points the way toward reducing the current risk. Absolutely essential reading' Cass Sunstein, Professor at Univ of Chicago Law School, co-author of Nudge 'Jonathan Zittrain does what no one has before - he eloquently and subtly pinpoints the magic that makes Wikipedia, and the Internet as a whole, work. The best way to save the Internet is to turn off your laptop until you've read this book' Jimbo Wales, Founder, Wikipedia

BBC Focus
`How refreshing to read Jonathan Zittrain's thorough book ... a good read. It's hugely in-depth, but it's also an interesting story'

Financial Times
`Zittrain's book is a useful starting point to understanding the choices that lie ahead'

Customer Reviews

A disapppointment
Jonathan Zittrain is an American lawyer and academic currently based at the Oxford Internet Institute. I have heard him speak several times and he is a lively and witty presenter, but sadly his book is a dull read due to its legalistic style. The 246 pages of main text are dotted with no less than 835 footnotes gathered into 80 pages at the back. This is a man who, when he mentions a web page, records not just the date but the time that he last visited it.

His main theme - which he repeats endlessly - can be simply stated. In his words: "The future is not one of generative PCs attached to a generative network. It is instead one of sterile appliances tethered to a network of control".

The personal computer and the Internet are open and flexible systems (he uses the word "generative" all the time) which have enabled an incredible flowering of innovative products and services from a multitude of sources. However, the very openness of the PC and the Web have exposed then to a whole variety of threats such as hacking, viruses, spam, and a host of malware.

In the face of such threats, the temptation will be to 'lock down' such systems that that they can be controlled more tightly. So devices increasingly will be "tethered" to limit what they can do (for instance, smart phones like the iPhone or PVRs like Sky+) and the Net will attract the attention of governments and regulators who will endeavour to limit what we can access and do on-line.

To stop this undesired future, we need to find ways of tapping into the co-operativeness and ingenuity of users themselves to find flexible solutions that may not be perfect but work - such as the controls that make Wikipedia operate so well.

Zittrain is incredibly knowledgeable and immensely insightful (his chapter on privacy is especially challenging), but his basic message is repeated and reworked so often, his solutions are so varied and diffuse, and the language is so opaque and legalistic than ultimately the book is a disappointment to the general reader (as opposed perhaps to a law student or IT geek). In any event, it is not clear that what Zittrain calls generativity is overall on the decline or that we have to chose between generative and tethered devices as opposed to selecting a mixture of items for different purposes and roles.

pompous blather - what a shame
This is the kind of book that gives academic writing a bad name. It is written in terrible nominal style, with as many latin words as possible, that is hard to read and dead boring. The cover blurb declaring this a "highly entertaining book" must be ironic. A random example (page 115): "If we move to a regime in which individuals, and not just distributors, are susceptible to impoundment remedies for digital contraband, these remedies might be applied only after the status of the contraband has been officially determined." An author who cannot express himself simpler probably has not that much to say.

The thesis of the book is simple: The internet has been great so far because it allows free tinkering, which the author calls a "generative" technology. However, its abuse leads to a trend towards sterile "tethered appliances" (which allow no tinkering), like the iphone which can only be modified by the manufacturer. Let's think hard how to keep the internet free! This is a bit too short, but the whole book can probably be condensed to ten pages of plain English. It would be nice to have a concise and intelligent debate of the topic. This book does not provide one.

Compelling and thought-provoking
Someone once said, "The plural of anecdote is data." Zittrain's new book is a delightful illustration of this principle, engaging the reader with fascinating observations and stories, then weaving them together to present a powerful narrative. Whether or not you share his vision for the future, you'll gain a new appreciation for how the online world that we take for granted today could easily have been--and still threatens to become--a strikingly different place.