Difference between revisions of "Networked information economy and society"
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== Networked Information Economy== | == Networked Information Economy== | ||
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big changes in "Advanced Economies" | big changes in "Advanced Economies" | ||
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"the design of new technologies (i.e. the Internet) allowed for user-to-user communication. Second, the price of computation, communication, and storage is steadily declining. In the old industrial information economy, the desire to communicate was often frustrated by price constraints on the mode of communication (printing, mailing, broadcasting)." | "the design of new technologies (i.e. the Internet) allowed for user-to-user communication. Second, the price of computation, communication, and storage is steadily declining. In the old industrial information economy, the desire to communicate was often frustrated by price constraints on the mode of communication (printing, mailing, broadcasting)." | ||
| − | + | Non-proprietary models of production made possible by the networked information society also can be harnessed to promote justice and human development. | |
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"In the industrial information economy the technology that was used to create culture was expensive, or if it wasn’t, the technology needed to spread those creations was. (...) But in the networked information economy not only has the physical capital become easier and cheaper to amass, the economic constraints on distribution are far less in the digital world. Not only does this allow individuals to create and distribute cultural products, it also allows them to speak back to the cultural products they consume" | "In the industrial information economy the technology that was used to create culture was expensive, or if it wasn’t, the technology needed to spread those creations was. (...) But in the networked information economy not only has the physical capital become easier and cheaper to amass, the economic constraints on distribution are far less in the digital world. Not only does this allow individuals to create and distribute cultural products, it also allows them to speak back to the cultural products they consume" | ||
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== The Role of Technology in Human Affairs == | == The Role of Technology in Human Affairs == | ||
Revision as of 16:37, 29 January 2015
Contents
Networked Information Economy
The rise of the era of the networked information society
big changes in "Advanced Economies"
- Production has shifted from the physical goods (cars, blue jeans, paper plates) to information goods and services (movies, wordprocessing software, tax preparation)
- Communication tools have shifted from a centralized, mass-market approach (CBS primetime shows, ABC evening news, Howard Stern on the radio) to a much more distributed and interconnected approach (the Internet).
New ICT allow decentralized, non-market production.
"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”, characterized by decentralized individual action carried out through distributed, nonmarket means."
"the design of new technologies (i.e. the Internet) allowed for user-to-user communication. Second, the price of computation, communication, and storage is steadily declining. In the old industrial information economy, the desire to communicate was often frustrated by price constraints on the mode of communication (printing, mailing, broadcasting)."
Non-proprietary models of production made possible by the networked information society also can be harnessed to promote justice and human development.
Enhanced Autonomy
improvement of individual autonomy in three ways:
- improves individuals’ capacities to do more for and by themselves.
- improves individuals’ capacity to do more in loose affiliation with others in a non-market setting.
- improves individuals’ capacity to cooperate with others through formal or organized groups that operate outside the market sphere.
The Networked Public Sphere
greater participation in the public sphere
- has given individuals alternatives to the news and commentary of mass media.
- a new and more accessible forms for discussion and debate.
- through both coordinated collective action and loose uncoordinated but coordinate action individuals can affect the content and focus of mass media news and commentary.
A Critical Culture and Networked Social Relations
emergence of a more critical and self-reflective culture, this process might be called the democratization of culture.
1) making culture more transparent
2) making culture more malleable.
"In the industrial information economy the technology that was used to create culture was expensive, or if it wasn’t, the technology needed to spread those creations was. (...) But in the networked information economy not only has the physical capital become easier and cheaper to amass, the economic constraints on distribution are far less in the digital world. Not only does this allow individuals to create and distribute cultural products, it also allows them to speak back to the cultural products they consume"
The Role of Technology in Human Affairs
A methodological assumption for Benkler's thesis. Possibilities that a technology offer, different actions, relationships, creations.
"Different technologies allow for different kinds of human actions and relationships."
"it does not state that technology dictates the kinds of actions and relationships that will arise. But it does suggest that, all other things being equal, if a technology makes it easier to perform an action that action will be more likely to occur; and, similarly, that if society lacks certain technologies which are pragmatically necessary to an activity, that activity is not likely to occur."
Example of Gutenberg printing press and different religious attitudes.
"the same technology (the printing press) had different effects on literacy in communities that endorsed individual worship and study of the Bible and in communities that discouraged such behavior."
"the role of the new technology upon which networked information economy is built can and will be exploited differently in different social structures. If we deny (as we should) technological determinism, we should also realize that there is no guarantee that this new technology will be exploited to improve society, enhance individual autonomy or promote democratic values."
"The role of this technology will be determined not just by its internal logic but according to our external societal attitudes."
commons-based peer production
peer-production : a new mode of production, one that is powerful, efficient, and sustainable.
According to Benkler, “peer production has an advantage over firms and markets because it allows larger groups of individuals to scour larger groups of resources in search of materials, projects, collaborations, and combinations than is possible for firms or individuals who function in markets. Transaction costs associated with property and contract limit the access of people to each other, to resources, and to projects when production is organized on a market or firm model, but not when it is organized on a peer production model.” (Coase’s Penguin, 376-377)
Furthermore, commons-based peer production generates benefits to the society because it creates a context where individuals can become virtuous and contribute to the public good. As Benkler and Nissembaum claim, “commons-based peer production fosters virtue by creating a context or setting that is conducive to virtuous engagement and practice, thereby offering a medium for inducing virtue itself in its participants.” (403)
By participating in OS projects, peers develop and practice several virtues such as autonomy, independence, creativity, productivity, benevolence, charity, generosity, altruism, camaraderie, friendship, and cooperation. Besides that, “commons-based peer production generates new modes of contributing to the public good by facilitating the collaborative engagement of thousands of ordinary individuals in the voluntary, creative, communal, regular, non-commercial production of intellectual and cultural goods, for a wide variety of reasons and motives. (Benkler and Nissembaum, 417)
