The Control Revolution: How the Internet is Putting Individuals in Charge and Changing the World We Know [Paperback]

Andrew L. Shapiro (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2000

Dissidents around the world use the Internet to evade censorship and get their message out. Cyber-gossips send dispatches to thousands via email. Musicians bypass record companies and put their songs on the world wide web for fans to download directly. Day traders roil the stock market, buying securities online with the click of a mouse and then selling minutes later when the price jumps. The Control Revolution argues that there is a common thread underlying such developments. It is not just a change in how we compute or communicate. Rather, it is a potentially radical shift in who is in controlof information, experience, and resources. Shapiro explains how new technology is allowing individuals to take power from large institutions such as government, corporations, and the media; shows how powerful entities are trying to limit our new digitally enabled autonomy; warns that individual control can be pushed too far; and describes how we can reap the benefits of the new control without succumbing either to resistance or to excess. Along the way, Shapiro explores cyberporn and censorship, customized news delivery, electronic commerce, online democracy, Microsofts market power, encryption and law enforcement, copyright in the digital age, virtual communities, Matt Drudge, privacy, and the role of interactive technology in struggles against political tyranny.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Where do you want to go today? This slogan/mantra is the centerpiece of a Microsoft advertising campaign and the central dilemma of our times, says technorealist Andrew L. Shapiro in The Control Revolution, a warning of the potentially dismal consequences of the uninhibited personalization afforded by the Internet. By putting individuals in charge of their own information gathering, Shapiro suggests that we might find ourselves imprisoned within our increasingly narrow choices or "oversteering" into a corporate-controlled Net environment not unlike network television. His aim is to alert us to the problems and help us steer a middle course to fully realize the benefits of worldwide networking.

What will happen to encryption, copyright, and free speech in our brave new world? How can we seize the power of unrestricted choice without giving in to the temptation of ignoring diverse opinions? How will governmental and business authorities respond to these threats to their power? Shapiro addresses these questions and others forcefully and eloquently, offering prescriptions for thoughtful leaders such as limiting certain intellectual property rights to free the market for new operating systems and creating incentives for virtual "public squares" where everyone can have their 15 nanominutes of fame. Thoughtful, entertaining, and substantial, The Control Revolution is essential reading for those charged with creating the future. --Rob Lightner --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Noting that the Internet is reshaping society and giving the individual unprecedented power, Shapiro, a Nation contributing editor, lawyer and director of the Aspen Institute Internet Policy Project, offers a sophisticated look at the Net and the ramifications of its current and potential uses. When the first graphical browsers came on the scene and made the Web accessible to anyone with a PC, optimists trumpeted the arrival of an era in which power would flow back to individuals after years of residing with corporations and institutions. Five years later, Shapiro sees that libertarian promise coming to fruition in many ways: day traders are bypassing stockbrokers; persons living under repressive regimes are using the Web to circumvent the Big Lie of state-controlled media; musicians and wordsmiths are self-publishing on the Web. Shapiro celebrates these freedoms, but his book is much more than a breathless booster's vision of digital utopia. Governments and corporations, he notes, are already striking back, and he documents some of the most egregious examples of censorship and attempts by companies to get a choke hold on Net technologies. And, most honestly, he addresses how too much digital autonomy might be harmful to civil society, in his critiques of "The Drudge Factor" (unaccountable pseudojournalism), "friction-free capitalism" (digital commerce freed from the restraints of taxation and regulation) and "push-button politics" (direct, electronic voting by citizens on matters currently decided by elected officials or appointed professionals). With scrupulous documentation and a knowledgeable but unpatronizing tone, Shapiro delivers a penetrating analysis of both the promise and peril of the digital future. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs (May 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 189162086X
• ISBN-13: 978-1891620867
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,153,921 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great survey of Internet impact on society., July 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Control Revolution: How the Internet is Putting Individuals in Charge and Changing the World We Know (Hardcover)

Being in the industry (Director of Technology at an Internet start-up) and thinking about the impact of the Internet every day, I wouldn't say that I've learned anything terribly new reading this book. On the other hand, I think some of the subtleties in the thesis are quite original. Many technicians in the industry will be amazed with the social, political and economic implications of what they are doing. And if you are NOT in the industry, you will find it VERY interesting.

I really like the overall organization and I find the step-by-step logic very tight, thorough and compelling. Finally, the research Andrew Shapiro has done is wonderful. This is not just breathless techno-hype or theoretical b-shcool drivel; this is real historical literature rich with detail, supporting arguments and rich sources.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Internet....NOW, March 25, 2000

By 

Frank W. Cornell - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Control Revolution: How the Internet is Putting Individuals in Charge and Changing the World We Know (Hardcover)

The Control Revolution By Andrew Shapiro

The information revolution, brought on by the introduction of the computer, has created tremendous changes to the way information is now receive and sent. If one remembers the impact and the changes in life style brought on first by the radio and followed by the television, one only has to marvel that in just 5 years the effects that the explosion of the Internet has had on the World today. In these last five years, with technology the driving force, the Internet has changed the way governments, business, commerce and educational systems perform. In 19997, President Clinton stated, "It will literally be possible to start a company tomorrow, and next week do business in Japan, Germany and Chile, all without living your home, something that used to take years and years to do. Mr. Shapiro book provides many major areas already impacted stating that there are more than 100 on line brokerage service servicing over 10 million investors. In essence, the day traders are replacing the middlemen. The Internet potential has expanded into every form of communications. Newspapers will be read in different languages, in different countries as soon as they are posted. Instead of waiting for news to be written and printed; those on the Internet will communicate directly to those at the site of, whether it be a natural disaster a revolution or a late breaking story. Mr. Shapiro also strongly cautions users of the Internet the need to demonstrate the capacity for being responsible if users expect governments to accept the individuals right to use the Internet without intervention. The author also takes the reader into each new existing and potential use of the Internet, like surfing the Web globally, linking into one's community, keeping abreast of federal and state happenings, helping students with their homework to seniors chatting with their neighbors. Mr. Shapiro book gives the readers a valuable insight into the present as well as the future of how the Internet is and will continue to change life styles. This book will be especially valuable to those who have doubts or believe that the Internet is a passing fade to be dealt with at another time. I recommend this book especially to those people, to read it before the bullet leaves the gun...then it will be too late to make your move.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Control Revolution - Andrew L. Shapiro, March 26, 2000

By 

Ben P. Meredith - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Control Revolution: How the Internet is Putting Individuals in Charge and Changing the World We Know (Hardcover)

If Andrew L. Shapiro's postulation is correct, the rise of the Internet will herald a decline in centralized power and a parallel rise in democratization within the United States and the World Community. Heretofore the exclusive prerogative and the domain of news agencies, publication moguls, politicians and governments, control of information and its use as a tool for control is waning. As the Internet, especially in its more commonly known interface of the World Wide Web, wires our lives and we become more accustomed to its presence, Shapiro presents us with a compelling argument that brings forward ghosts of Rousseau's "The Social Contract" in a newly packaged, computer-esk mantra.

Shapiro produces a compelling argument for the increased democratization of society in the emerging computer and information era. Examining the social, political and economic realms, he highlights the various practices, policies and trends that are providing these arenas with form and content. Addressing a general audience, Shapiro delves away from techno-jargon or legalize that tend to cloud the issues at hand. Relying instead on clear examples in a concise writing fashion, Shapiro positions himself into a controversial position between futurist and alarmist.

Of the myriad of arguments he presents, his discussion on the impact personalization will have on society especially is both exciting and frightening. Increasingly we are witnessing a personalization revolution in all aspects of computer related interfaces. From e-commerce to the "My Computer/My Documents/My Music" icons in Microsoft, delivering individuality to millions is big business and profit share. In the face of the dehumanizing effects of numerical identification, whether it is one's social security number, a PIN number or an IP address, such personalization provides society with a reminder of its human quality. With the same ease one has in individualizing, customizing and censuring their personal news delivery, one can also individualize, customize and censure out the diversity of the society. No longer are we forced to, even in passing, glance over articles and headlines (thus being exposed to them) as we leaf through a newspaper. No longer are we forced to listen to new voices through our radio as we travel (new technology is currently dawning that will allow us to listen to our favorite streaming Los Angeles Stations while sunbathing in Hilton Head). No longer do we have to converse with a wide variety of people, hearing different perspectives and different cultural influences; we can now censure our conversations to only those who fit our criteria. While in keeping with the increased control that the new Control Revolution is placing in our hands, such roses may have some large thorns.

Shapiro's tomb is thought provoking and well worth the time. His organization is easy to follow and his concise chapters are well suited for reading as time allows. As a primer to the new era, this volume should be included in a professional library. Certainly, Shapiro's book will produce enough cocktail conversation to satisfy a season of parties.