1. Introduction: A Moment of Opportunity and Challenge: Difference between revisions

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===Networked Information Economy and Liberal Democratic States===
===Networked Information Economy and Liberal Democratic States===
How we make information, how we get it, how we speak to others, and how others speak to us are core components of the shape of freedom in any society.  Part II of this book will examine how the networked information economy effects four core commitments of democratic societies: individual freedom, a participatory political system, a critical culture, and social justice.  Often these commitments are contradictory and therefore must be balanced against one another. For example, a commitment to social justice that takes the form of a progressive tax necessarily limits individuals’ freedom to spend their income as they see fit.  Different societies have achieved this balance in different ways, but in all case the economics of industrial production have constrained the range of possible arrangements. For example, consider the United State’s commitment to a critical culture that took the form of the Fairness Doctrine, which imposed a general obligation on broadcasters to give equal air time to opposing political views.  It was market forces and the scarcity of airtime that led the FCC to adopt this position in the first place, But as the number of information outlets increased the FCC began to loosen its rules implementing the Fairness Doctrine, the Commission arguing that the constraint on broadcasters editorial decisions was no longer justified since diverse views could be presented in other ways that impinged less on individual automony.  The networked information economy has lifted market constraints on the ordering of liberal values along four different dimensions:
====Enhanced Autonomy====
====Enhanced Autonomy====
The networked information economy improves individual autonomy in three ways.  First, it improves individuals’ capacities to do more for and by themselves.  Take baking for example.  The internet offers thousands of different recipes for apple pie.  A first time baker no longer needs to buy a Betty Crocker cookbook, call his grandmother for a recipe, or enroll in a cooking class to learn how to bake a pie.  All he needs to do is perform a Google search for the phrase “apple pie recipe”  Likewise, someone skilled in the art of pie-making and with a wish to share his knowledge does not need technical expertise to share it:  he could easily start a blog devoted to pie recipes.  Second, it improves individuals’ capacity to do more in loose affiliation with others in a non-market setting.  Again, the results of the Google “apple pie recipe” search are an example of the success of this loose uncoordinated affiliation.  Three, the networked information society improves individuals’ capacity to corporate with others through formal or organized groups that operate outside the market sphere.  Wikipedia, the open source software movement, SETI@home are all examples. The fluidity and low level (both in terms of money and time) of commitment required for participation in these wide range of projects is just one of the ways in which the networked information economy has enhanced individuals’ autonomy.
====Democracy: The Networked Public Sphere====
====Democracy: The Networked Public Sphere====
The networked information economy has also allowed individuals’ greater participation in the public sphere.  This has happened in at least three ways.  First, it has given individuals alternatives to the news and commentary of mass media.  Second, it has created new and more accessible forms for discussion and debate. Now the individual’s does not need to write a letter to the editor or attempt to get her unsolicited op-ed published, she can comment on Instapundit, or even start her own blog.  Third, through both coordinated collective action and loose uncoordinated but coordinate action individuals can affect the content and focus of mass media news and commentary.  An example of this is when a blogger “breaks a story” which is picked up by other bloggers until the main stream media take notice and respond.
====Justice and Human Development====
====Justice and Human Development====
====A Critical Culture and Networked Social Relations====
====A Critical Culture and Networked Social Relations====
===Four Methodological Comments===
===Four Methodological Comments===
====The Role of Technology in Human Affairs====
====The Role of Technology in Human Affairs====

Revision as of 14:12, 28 February 2006

Summary of the chapter

Overview

The Emergence of the Networked Information Economy

First, advanced economies have shifted from an economy based on production of physical goods and services (e.g., automobiles and textiles, mining and construction) to an economy centered on the production of information goods and services (e.g., cinema and software, legal representation and financial planning). Second, advanced economies have shifted from a communications environment relies on an expensive centralized communicator that broadcasts to a wide audience (e.g., radio, television) to an environment that relies on a multitude of cheap processors with high computing capacity that are interconnected with one another (i.e., the Internet). These two shifts make it possible to lessen the market’s influence over political values. The second shift allows decentralized, non-market production. The first shift means that this new form of production will play a central, rather than periphery role, in advanced economies. The first part of this book explores in detail the economic implications of these two parallel shifts. The central thesis is that a new stage of the information economy is emerging. The industrial information economy of the mid nineteenth and twentieth centuries is now being displaced by the “networked information economy.” The networked information economy is characterized by decentralized individual action carried out through willed distributed, nonmarket means that do no depend on market strategies. Several factors allowed for the networked information economy to emerge. First, the design of computing technologies and the internet allows for user-to-user communication. Second, the price of computation, communication, and storage has steadily declined and continues to do so. In the old industrial information economy, the desire to communicate was often frustrated by price constraints on the mode of communication. Price constraints on printing, mailing, and broadcasting meant that wider the audience one wanted to reach, the larger the price tag. It was difficult for the average individual, unaffiliated with a commercial business, to broadcast over the radio station and almost impossible to do so via a television network. In the networked information economy, many of these price constraints have been radically loosened. There are three important observations about this new economy. One, non-proprietary strategies have always been more common in the production of information goods than in the production of physical goods. Examples include public education, the arts and sciences, and political debate. Because these activities are cheaper in the new economy means, in principle, they should play a more central role in information production. Two, there has, in fact, been such an increase in importance. A Google search returns information on almost any subject a user queries. The list of hits comprising the information good is the result of the coordinate efforts of uncoordinated actions a wide and diverse group of individuals. Three, there numerous examples of effective, large-scale, cooperative efforts to create information and culture. This is commonly known as peer-production and is typified by the open-source software movement. Other examples include Wikipedia and SETI@Home. Without an analytic method of understanding these phenomena, which fly in the face of many traditional economic assumptions, we will see them as mere curiosities or fads. The purpose of Part I of the book is to provide a sophisticated framework that will allow us to understand peer-production for what it really is: a new mode of production, one that is powerful, efficient, and sustainable.

Networked Information Economy and Liberal Democratic States

How we make information, how we get it, how we speak to others, and how others speak to us are core components of the shape of freedom in any society. Part II of this book will examine how the networked information economy effects four core commitments of democratic societies: individual freedom, a participatory political system, a critical culture, and social justice. Often these commitments are contradictory and therefore must be balanced against one another. For example, a commitment to social justice that takes the form of a progressive tax necessarily limits individuals’ freedom to spend their income as they see fit. Different societies have achieved this balance in different ways, but in all case the economics of industrial production have constrained the range of possible arrangements. For example, consider the United State’s commitment to a critical culture that took the form of the Fairness Doctrine, which imposed a general obligation on broadcasters to give equal air time to opposing political views. It was market forces and the scarcity of airtime that led the FCC to adopt this position in the first place, But as the number of information outlets increased the FCC began to loosen its rules implementing the Fairness Doctrine, the Commission arguing that the constraint on broadcasters editorial decisions was no longer justified since diverse views could be presented in other ways that impinged less on individual automony. The networked information economy has lifted market constraints on the ordering of liberal values along four different dimensions:

Enhanced Autonomy

The networked information economy improves individual autonomy in three ways. First, it improves individuals’ capacities to do more for and by themselves. Take baking for example. The internet offers thousands of different recipes for apple pie. A first time baker no longer needs to buy a Betty Crocker cookbook, call his grandmother for a recipe, or enroll in a cooking class to learn how to bake a pie. All he needs to do is perform a Google search for the phrase “apple pie recipe” Likewise, someone skilled in the art of pie-making and with a wish to share his knowledge does not need technical expertise to share it: he could easily start a blog devoted to pie recipes. Second, it improves individuals’ capacity to do more in loose affiliation with others in a non-market setting. Again, the results of the Google “apple pie recipe” search are an example of the success of this loose uncoordinated affiliation. Three, the networked information society improves individuals’ capacity to corporate with others through formal or organized groups that operate outside the market sphere. Wikipedia, the open source software movement, SETI@home are all examples. The fluidity and low level (both in terms of money and time) of commitment required for participation in these wide range of projects is just one of the ways in which the networked information economy has enhanced individuals’ autonomy.

Democracy: The Networked Public Sphere

The networked information economy has also allowed individuals’ greater participation in the public sphere. This has happened in at least three ways. First, it has given individuals alternatives to the news and commentary of mass media. Second, it has created new and more accessible forms for discussion and debate. Now the individual’s does not need to write a letter to the editor or attempt to get her unsolicited op-ed published, she can comment on Instapundit, or even start her own blog. Third, through both coordinated collective action and loose uncoordinated but coordinate action individuals can affect the content and focus of mass media news and commentary. An example of this is when a blogger “breaks a story” which is picked up by other bloggers until the main stream media take notice and respond.

Justice and Human Development

A Critical Culture and Networked Social Relations

Four Methodological Comments

The Role of Technology in Human Affairs

The Role of Economic Analysis and Methodological Individualism

Economic Structure in Liberal Political Theory

Whither the State?

The Stakes of It All: The Battle Over The Institutional Ecology of the Digital Environment

Sources

Sources cited in the chapter

Other relevant readings

Case Studies

Supporting examples

Counter-examples