Product Description

With the radical changes in information production that the Internet has introduced, we stand at an important moment of transition, says Yochai Benkler in this thought-provoking book. The phenomenon he describes as social production is reshaping markets, while at the same time offering new opportunities to enhance individual freedom, cultural diversity, political discourse, and justice. But these results are by no means inevitable: a systematic campaign to protect the entrenched industrial information economy of the last century threatens the promise of today's emerging networked information environment. In this comprehensive social theory of the Internet and networked information economy, Benkler describes how patterns of information, knowledge, and cultural production are changing - and shows that the way information and knowledge are made available can either limit or enlarge the ways people create and express themselves. He describes the range of legal and policy choices that confront us and maintains that there is much to be gained, or lost, by the decisions we make today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #171695 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Review
`... a comprehensive, informative, and challenging meditation on the rise of the "networked information economy" ... insightful, intelligent, and engaging.'
--Peter G. Klein, The Independent Review, Winter 2009

Kenneth Neil Cukier, New Statesman, September 4 2006
'Benkler's work masterfully explains the political and economic
forces at play... His book is of lasting significance.'

About the Author
Yochai Benkler is professor of law at Yale Law School, Yale University.

Customer Reviews

Like Lessig, but in a very broad context
First off, if you're looking for a nice introduction to what happens when law meets the internet, this is not your book. If this is your first dip into the debate, you're looking for Code or The Future of Ideas, both by Lawrence Lessig. Like those books (especially TFOI) it's big on the idea of the internet as a wonderful platform for free expression and innovation, both economically and socially motivated. Like them, it stresses the importance of openness and the commons in maximising the internet's potential and so wants open spectrum, open code and less hasty and restrictive intellectual property law. Unlike them, it can be very heavy going at times.

That's not really a criticism, because Benkler's written something much more self-consciously theoretical than most of the other cyber-law stuff you'll find on the market. His big idea is that the really fundamental change that the internet brings is social production - the fusion between social instincts, altruism and OCD that leads people to work on Linux, contribute to Wikipedia and write product reviews on Amazon. He then looks at what exactly this changes for economic production, democratic participation, cultural freedom and development, and argues that we need to do more to recognise and protect the benefits that it brings.

If did have a criticism, it would be that the book formalizes and thus labours what may seem like rather obvious points after the third variation. On the other hand, that's the nature of the beast if you're looking for a thorough academic treatment of these issues. The issues addressed are hugely important for anyone interested in economics or politics in the information age, and this is the most definitive treatment of them so far. Probably not one for the airport lounge, though.

Good overview of social production
A great book that puts the whole social production, such as wikipedia and free software, into a much greater perspective than what one normally sees and analyzes it from several new angles which I havn't read anywhere before. The only weak points of the book is that its quite long and at times somewhat repetitive.