I'm pretty critical on reviewing books and this is a rare five star. Most of us are wondering how the Internet will evolve and how it will change the future of our society in terms of where the power of information and entertainment will reside, and Wu does a great job at giving us a brief "history lesson" of several key industries - telegraph, telephone, AM and FM radio, broadcast TV, cable TV, Hollywood, and the Internet. For each, he takes us through examples of how each is subject to the same "Cycle" of disruptive innovation by entrepreneurs who first bring the promise of diversity and decentralization of power, but this is ultimately followed by the centralization of power as corporate interests consolidate power, and diversity reduces and control by few individuals affects our everyday lives and culture. It's well balanced as Wu always compares the advantages of centralized power (e.g.efficiency, quality, time to market) with it's disadvantages (e.g. stifling innovation, controlling our culture). He illustrates the role of the government at usually siding with the interests of corporate consolidation, but sometimes playing an important role at doing the opposite (e.g. breaking up the old Hollywood's control of theaters, breaking up AT&T, bring Cable TV along). He also illustrates the importance of certain powerful individuals at consolidating power, as well as other individuals at breaking up consolidated power, both sides believing in their causes more so than being in it for the money. The stories he uses to illustrate his points contain details I haven't heard of before, it's an enjoyable read, and well analyzed. I cannot attest to the accuracy of his information and analysis, but it's very credible and well balanced.
It's clear that Wu believes in limiting power, but who wouldn't unless you were a rising captain of industry. As I read it, I couldn't help but wonder if the Internet is different, and eagerly waited for the big Aha, the big revelation at the end. And that is where I had more mixed feelings. In the conclusion, firstly Wu did a great job at cutting through the noise and pointing out that there is always a battle between centralized power and decentralized power and this battle is not just about the obvious economic factors, but individuals who believe in the merits of their respective position on this issue. He pointed out that on one side we have centralized power via AT&T, Apple, Disney, NBC for example, and on the other side we have decentralized power via Google, Amazon, Wikipedia. His argument is that the centralized powers want to control Internet access and it was clear that his centralized issue was ensuring Net Neutrality which he described as the "common carrier issue of the Internet". At first I was disappointed that this was his main point as I don't believe that we should seriously be worried about Net Neutrality. As one of millions of people who are trying to heard on the Internet, I was hoping I was going to get more insights into the marketing power of large companies on the Internet - i.e. how do you get through the noise. Even though we small players can distribute our content on the Internet, it's still the larger players who can afford to give away a lot for free, create well produced content, and use a combination of Internet advertising/presence and traditional media channels to brand themselves. So I believe you can make an argument that in the long run, the Internet will actually make things worse for the small players because it allows an even smaller number of large players to dominate by reaping large profits with small profit margins across an enormous volume of customers. You of course could make the opposite argument that the Internet promotes diversity as the key to success is dominating a micromarket, something the larger players are not well equipped to do. So there was very little insight into that, and this was my key disappointment.
However, it was a good reminder that we can't take Net Neutrality for granted. Wu made many strong points for Net Neutrality (i.e. separation of distribution and content) at a legal level. These arguments were good and well summarized, but nothing new. However, once I saw the main point of the book being don't take this for granted, I saw important insights that he made on this topic. He pointed out that the ability for large players (both corporations and individuals) to consolidate power and control us is greater than ever with the Internet. He was focused mostly on Net Neutrality and indicated that the combination Apple and Google could fall prey ultimately to the power of the networks (e.g. AT&T). He illustrated that there are a variety of government actions that can be done across several parts of the government to ensure Net Neutrality: e.g. FCC, anti-trust/legal, etc. (i.e. you can't rely on any one government entity). But he pointed out that ultimately, what really determines what a big player will do on this issue (or any issue) is regulating their own behavior to ensure they don't alienate their customers and get bad press - imagine the backlash if a Comcast was caught censoring a website. This might fly in China, but not in the US. So in a very Jeffersonian sense, the awareness of the population of these issues, and their intolerance of it is the best defense. So, ultimately, we have to protect our right to ditch Comcast (for example) for some other Internet carrier, and fortunately we have many options - the local phone company, wireless, etc. So Wu's argument that this is an important issue is very well taken, but I'm not sure if it's the key concern.
If we look at the Apple/AT&T combination as Wu highlights, is the concern one of Net Neutrality? The concern is more about Apple's ability to censor what applications run on their iPhone/iPad. But even they got a lot of bad press about preventing certain Google and Skype apps from running on their phone. So I don't buy Wu's arguments about the real concern being these issues. He missed to me a critical issue of of marketing, branding, copyright protection, and getting your share of the noise. And he did correctly point out that anyone interesting in copyright protection is going to prefer an Apple approach vs. a Google approach as you can get some protection, certainly from the point of view of Software/applications, but no longer for music/videos, etc.
It's anybody's guess as to where this is going. But Wu does a great job at putting history into perspective, illustrating that we shouldn't take Net Neutrality for granted, and seeing that the cycle of those pushing for consolidation/centralization will always be at odds with those pushing for decentralization - i.e. a great framework for pondering and discussion. I believe that some level of consolidation is needed even if you're one to push for advocacy of issues like saving the environment, allowing smaller producers of entertainment to be heard, grass roots politics, etc, because without some level of consolidation, there will just be noise out there. And that's the biggest enemy, because only the big players might be able to cut through the noise, and over history, creating noise is an important tactic that those seeking power use.
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Top reviews from other countries
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- Ned WileyReviewed in Germany on October 23, 2014
fascinating reading for every citizen of the Information Age, essential reading for everyone working in it.
- Alan LentonReviewed in the United Kingdom on September 21, 2014
Superb History of 20th Century Information Networks
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Amazon CustomerReviewed in Italy on January 22, 2014
Un grande libro pieno di spunti inattesi
