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Loading... The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires (2010)by Tim Wu
   No current Talk conversations about this book. 3.5 stars, a wonderful history of telecommunications empires. I'm not sure I agree with the conclusions Wu draws, but that is probably my technological idealism overpowering reason. (  )1   sdmouton | May 19, 2015 |  Goes through the modern "information" businesses in the US - telephone, radio, television and film, and internet. A recurrent theme is how upstarts become (power-abusing) empires. The communication network determines who gets heard. Bell vs Gray controversy over the invention of the telephone. The Bell company exploiting its monopoly and sabotaging competitors. Broadcasting and sports. Modern mass media is sometimes accused of weakening local communities, but Wu claims that at least radio had the opposite effect. Tinkering and voluntary sharing important in the early days of radio, but less and less, like internet and computers today. Hollywood censorship code possible to implement because of centralization of power. A second recurrent theme is "the utopia of openness vs the perfection of the closed system." Will today's information giants be different from before? Do not bet on it. ( ) ohernaes | Apr 15, 2015 | This was was a surprise. The author was patient and took his time building a case for his argument, so the firs 3/4 of the book is a history of telecommunications in the 19th and 20th centuries. Wu shows that the recent history of the Internet, in real and important ways, mirrors the development of telephone, radio, television, film, cable television before. Wu finds a pattern: innovation leads to disruption, which is then consolidated by industry until the next innovation comes. Currently, we are in a phase of innovation, but Wu challenges the easy optimism that suggests the powers of consolidation have been defeated forever. Net neutrality and the consolidation of media into single companies poses a threat to openness and innovation. Highly recommended. (  ) nnschiller | Sep 18, 2014 | On my list to reread -- Read this in the form of a somewhat scrambled audio book, due to the bother of working around DRM on an ebook I bought. This provided a delightful frisson as I read the book's accounts of other communication medias being taken over and locked down by corporations. Anyway, I wish I could get everyone involved with say, Debian or Linux or general online free culture to read this. While it can be a bit of a slog in places, it provides a worldview that makes certain corporate maneuverings and ongoing shifts going on right now look very transparent. (Hello Google, Apple, Amazon, etc.) It shows how people trying to do what we're trying to do have failed, and failed, and failed yet again. This is valuable. I was not fully convinced by its argument that the internet (and, though it doesn't mention it specifically, free software) is no different than radio, tv, telephone, movies, cable. But, as it points out, the wild-eyed visionary ones always think they have something new and world-changing. Wu's concluding proposal to prevent the cycle he identifies, was also sadly, not to me very convincing. At least, its prospects look unlikely in the US. ( ) joeyreads | Apr 2, 2013 | As with Nothing to Envy, I should have written this review right after reading the book. It was fantastic, and I'd like to read it again. Great history of the "Information Empires" of the 20th and early 21st century, the continuing tension between openness and control. The history of television seemed particularly instructive: there was no early era of openness; instead Sarnoff (RCA/NBC) manipulated everything he could to make sure that it came out under the exact same control as radio at the time. Found myself kinda wishing for some discussion of Facebook in the closing chapters, in which there was a lot of focus on Apple & Google. It seemed to me that Facebook (or its moral equivalents) are the elephant in the room in that discussion. Very highly recommended. ( ) epersonae | Mar 30, 2013 |
 "let’s cut to the chase—the argument about the future of the Internet. I wasn’t sure whether I agreed or disagreed until I realized Wu is making two different claims, a weak one and a strong one, and does not separate them clearly." "In summary, Wu deserves major kudos both for the historical treatment and for some very astute insights about the Internet. For example, in the last 2-3 years, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter have all made dramatic moves toward centralization, control and closed platforms. Wu seems to have foreseen this general trend more clearly than most techies did.[1] The book does have drawbacks, and I don’t agree that the Internet will go the way of past monopolies without intervention. It should be very interesting to see what moves Wu will make now that he will be advising the FTC."
References to this work on external resources.
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Wikipedia in English (8)
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