Net Loss: Internet Prophets, Private Profits, and the Costs to Community [Paperback]

Nathan Newman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 9, 2002

How has the internet been changing our lives and how did these changes come about? Nathan Newman seeks the answers to these questions by studying the emergence of the internet economy in Silicon Valley and the transformation of power relations it has brought about in the new information age. Net Loss is his effort to understand why technological innovation and growth have been accompanied by increasing economic inequality and a sense of political powerlessness among large sectors of the population. Newman first tells the story of the US federal government's crucial role in the early development of the internet, with the promotion of open computer standards and collaborative business practices that became the driving force of the Silicon Valley model. He then examines the complex dynamic of the process whereby regional economies have been changing as business alliances built around industries like the internet replace the broader public investments that fueled regional growth in the past. A radical restructuring of once regionally confused industries like banking, electric utilities and telephone companies is under way, with changes in federal regulation helping to undermine regional planning and the power of local community actors. The rise of global internet commerce itself contributes to weakening the tax base of local governments, even as these governments increasingly use networked technology to market themselves and their citizens to global business, usually at the expense of all but their most elite residents. More optimistically, Newman sees an emerging countertrend of global use of the internet by grassroots organizations, such as those in the anti-globalization movements, that may help to transcend this local powerlessness.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Newman, a union lawyer, political activist, and frequent contributor to Technology Review, Progressive Populist, and American Prospect, offers a thinly disguised rewrite of his groundbreaking 1998 doctoral dissertation. On the surface, the book provides an in-depth analysis of the federal government's long-obscured role in the development of the Internet and the changing role of regions in the U.S. economy. At its heart, it is a call for individuals, groups, and communities to organize and counter the various political, social, and economic costs that have resulted, including globalization, contingent employment, economic polarization, expanded regulation, inequality, joblessness, outsourcing, opportunism, privatization, wage stagnation, and the disempowerment of communities and local government. Along the way, Newman provides a well-written history of the Internet plus an analysis of key events, including the federal government's decision to withdraw from controlling the net, the passage of Proposition 13 in California, the breakup of AT&T, the 1999 battle in Seattle during the World Trade Organization conference, and the 2001 energy crisis in California. Recommended for both academic libraries and larger public libraries. Norm Hutcherson, California State Univ. Lib., Bakersfield
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Nathan Newman has written a fascinating history of the Silicon Valley that chronicles the federal government's leading role in creating, and then privatizing, the Internet. Net Loss not only dispels the myth that the Internet emerged full-blown as a result of entrepreneurial risk in a competitive marketplace, but also explains in depth how forces of globalization have undermined regional economies in California while reshaping social and political life in local communities. This groundbreaking book is a must read for anyone concerned with the power of global corporations and the future of democratic governance. --Scott Bowman, California State University, Los Angeles

Net Loss is the perfect antidote for the confusion generated by the years of hype and the recent disillusionment surrounding the Internet economy. Nathan Newman offers a cogent and original analysis of what the Internet has really meant to the regional economy of the Silicon Valley as well as to other regions. Anyone in search of fresh ideas carefully grounded in a rich base of research will find this book just what they have been looking for. --Peter Evans, University of California, Berkeley

While the dot.com's have crashed and burned, the ideology surrounding them hasn't. Nathan Newman's Net Loss is an essential and original contribution to putting the cyberlibertarians' nonsense behind us--a reminder of the central role of government in developing the Internet, and the legal manipulations behind all the wacky and destructive experiments in deregulation of the last 20 years. An important story very well told. --Doug Henwood, editor of Left Business Observer

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Product Details

• Paperback: 399 pages
• Publisher: Pennsylvania State Univ Pr (August 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0271022051
• ISBN-13: 978-0271022055
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,033,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Startling cogent analysis, September 3, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Net Loss: Internet Prophets, Private Profits, and the Costs to Community (Paperback)

What fun this was to read! It's so refreshing to read something that looks at the actual facts, crunches the data, and tells me the way it is, the way it should be, and how to fix it-- in clear language! Newman's argument is flawless, and I couldn't put it down. Read this to learn how little fish can team up to eat big fish.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's good for you and it tastes good too!, August 23, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Net Loss: Internet Prophets, Private Profits, and the Costs to Community (Paperback)

This author has somehow taken topics that, despite their importance, ordinarily would make my eyes glaze over with boredom and has through pithy writing and an abiliy to interpret complicated matters for the lay person acually managed to make them into a fun book to read. I highly recomend this book especially if it is not the type you would typically read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Challenges conventional wisdom, August 29, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Net Loss: Internet Prophets, Private Profits, and the Costs to Community (Paperback)

After having the lights go out in the Northeast, it's worth reading a book that predicted the problems coming from deregulating "networked" industries. More broadly, it challenges the conventional wisdom on the Internet-- from making clear how much the tech boom was based on government regulation and spending as well as why it was the withdrawal of government that helped lead to the Silicon Valley bust in the last 90s.

Highly recommended.