Information Society Watch

2006, Yochai Benkler,Yale University Press

This book is a useful guide to the networked information economy and an eloquent statement of the left-liberal conception of the Internet’s “institutional ecology”.
According to the author, traditional economics, shaped by industrial norms, has failed to explain the emerging pattern of open production. The book introduces the concept of commons-based peer production driven by non-monetary and non-proprietary incentives. It's important to note Benklar on public policy and his concerns about privatizing the digital commons referred as the “second enclosure movement”. He further highlights a positive role for the state to maintain openness, or “neutrality,” within the economy’s digital infrastructure.

Read full book