Radio Berkman: My Own Private Infrastructure
From the MediaBerkman blog:
If you’ve been following the Facebook Terms of Service flap you probably have some idea of how big a deal a company’s terms of service can be. If Facebook were a country they would be the sixth largest in the world, just by the sheer number of citizens they can claim.
But how a citizen of Facebook participates in society - at least in the microcosm of society that is Facebook - is subject to a confusing and overlapping set of legal infrastructures - not just the Terms of Service Facebook sets out.
Gillian Hadfield a law and economics professor at the University of Southern California argues that Facebook and other companies in the new economy are inhibited by current mechanisms for producing law, and need more leeway in developing their own legal infrastructures. Is Professor Hadfield looking to put the government out of a job? Not exactly. Listen to today’s episode to find out what private lawmaking really means, and how it could power innovation.