We mentioned the importance of Yochai Benkler‘s new book on The Wealth of Networks before. And we’ve selected it as one of the top 10 P2P Books that are a must-read. The Crooked Timber blog now adds an interesting resource: a discussion seminar with the participation of other eminent authors on related topics.
Here’s an overview of the seminar’s content, with links embedded:
” Henry Farrell argues that not only formal institutions but also informal norms are necessary for these technologies to enable proper collaboration. Dan Hunter celebrates the book, but worries that it covers too many topics, and that it’s written in language that non-academic readers may have difficulty in understanding. John Quiggin examines the underlying motivations behind the production of common resources, and suggests that Benkler’s arguments point to major flaws in innovation policy. Eszter HargittaiJack Balkin claims that Benkler’s book isn’t so much about new modes of cooperation replacing market mechanisms, as existing side-by-side with them. Siva VaidhyanathanYochai Benkler responds to all of the above suggests that inequalities in the ability to participate may mean that these new technologies won’t do as much to flatten social hierarchies as they might seem to. argues that Benkler’s book is guilty of a soft form of technological determinism, which overemphasizes the positive consequences of new technologies and implicitly discounts the less positive. Finally, .”
Wrap-up of the URL’s:
Wealth of Networks seminar
http://crookedtimber.org/2006/05/30/norms-and-networks/
http://crookedtimber.org/2006/05/30/a-general-theory-of-information-policy/
http://crookedtimber.org/2006/05/30/why-do-social-networks-work/
http://crookedtimber.org/2006/05/30/whose-networks-whose-wealth/
http://crookedtimber.org/2006/05/30/mediating-the-social-contradiction-of-the-digital-age/
http://crookedtimber.org/2006/05/30/the-dialectic-of-technology/