Who Owns The Network?

Note: this cross-posted item is my contribution to our Banned Books Week recognition. We’ve been pitting books against each other, hoping to illustrate that there are always (at least) two sides to every story. Most of the other books were more social or political, but I liked this pair. Wikinomics authors Don Tapscott and Anthony […] » about 300 words

Whose Technology Is It Anyway?

I wasn’t planning on posting much about Keen’s Cult of the Amateur, but I did. And now I find myself posting about it again. Thing is, I’m a sucker for historical analogy, and Clay Shirky yesterday posted a good one that compared the disruptive effects of mechanized cloth production to today’s internet. Yes, that’s actually […] » about 400 words

Keen Says I’m Killing Culture, Byte By Byte

Andrew Keen‘s The Cult of the Amateur; How Today’s Internet Is Killing Our Culture is getting a lot of attention from usually quiet corners of the web, and I’ve had to quell the urge to write a story under the headline “Andrew Keen Tells YouTubers to Eat Spinach.” Keen’s argument rests on the belief that […] » about 300 words