video of my debate with Jonathan Zittrain at New America Foundation
This afternoon at the New America Foundation, Jonathan Zittrain and I engaged in a spirited debate about his provocative new book, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It. As always, Jonathan gave an us an interesting and highly entertaining show, and it was a great honor for me to be given the opportunity to provide some feedback about his book. I've been quite critical of the thesis that Jonathan sets forth in his book, and I have discussed my reservations in a lengthy book review and a series of follow-up essays here and elsewhere. (Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
Jonathan opens with about 45 minutes of remarks and I come into the conversation around the 49 mark of the video. Michael Calabrese of NAF also has some comments about Jonathan's book after I speak and then there is some interaction with the audience.
Adam Thierer will be a guest on C-SPAN's "The Communicators" this weekend, where he will share his opinions on tech policy happenings so far this year and what can be expected in next administration.
If you happen to be out Saturday at 6:30pm (C-SPAN) or Monday at 8:00am and 8:00pm (C-SPAN 2), it should be posted online here.
They also have a fancy you tube channel here.
Grouping Recent Net Books: Internet Optimists vs. Pessimists
A number of very interesting books have been released over the past year or two which debate how the Internet is reshaping our culture and the economy. I've reviewed a couple of them here but I have been waiting to compile a sort of mega-book review once I found a sensible way to conceptually group them together. I'm not going to have time to cover each of them here in the detail they deserve, but I think I have at least found a sensible way to categorize them. For lack of better descriptors, I've divided these books and thinkers into two camps: "Internet optimists" versus "Internet Pessimists." Here's a list of some of the individuals and books (or other articles and blogs) that I believe epitomize these two camps of thinking:
And here's a rough sketch of the major beliefs or key themes that separate these two schools of thinking about the impact of the Internet on our culture and economy:
Beliefs / Themes
Internet Optimists
Internet Pessimists
Culture / Social
Net is Participatory
Net is Polarizing
Net yields Personalization
Net yields Fragmentation
a "Global village"
Balkanization
Heterogeneity / Diversity of Thought
Homogeneity / Close-mindedness
Net breeds pro-democratic tendencies
Net breeds anti-democratic tendencies
Tool of liberation & empowerment
Tool of frequent misuse & abuse
Economics / Business
Benefits of "free" ("Free" = future of media / business)
Costs of "free" ("Free" = end of media / business)
Increasing importance of "Gift economy"
Continuing importance of property rights, profits, firms
"Wiki" model = wisdom of crowds; power of collective intelligence
"Wiki" model = stupidity of crowds; errors of collective intelligence
Mass collaboration
Individual effort
So, what to make of this intellectual war? Who's got the story right?
Well, I actually didn't exactly get a chance to say quite enough for this to qualify as much of a "debate," but I was brought in roughly a half hour into this WBUR (Boston NPR affiliate) radio show featuring Jonathan Zittrain, author of the recently released: The Future of the Internet-And How to Stop It. Jonathan was kind enough to suggest to the producers that I might make a good respondent to push back a bit in opposition to the thesis set forth in his new book.
Jonathan starts about 6 minutes into the show and they bring me in around 29 minutes in. Although I only got about 10 minutes to push back, I thought the show's host Tom Ashbrook did an excellent job raising many of the same questions I do in my 3-part review (Part 1, 2, 3) of Jonathan's provocative book.
In the show, I stress the same basic points I made in those reviews: (1) he seems to be over-stating things quite a bit in saying that the old "generative" Internet is "dying"; and in doing so, (2) he creates a false choice of possible futures from which we must choose. What I mean by false choice is that Jonathan doesn't seem to believe a hybrid future is possible or desirable. I see no reason why we can't have the best of both worlds--a world full of plenty of tethered appliances, but also plenty of generativity and openness.
another problem for the Zittrain thesis -- old people!
I swear I'm not trying to pick on Jonathan Zittrain, but I continue to find examples that create problems for his thesis from The Future of the Internet-And How to Stop It that the whole world is going to hell because of the rise of what he contemptuously calls "sterile, tethered devices." Again, in his provocative book, Zittrain argues that, for a variety of reasons, the glorious days of the generative, open Internet and general-purpose PCs are supposedly giving way to closed networks and closed devices. In my lengthy review of his book, I argued that Zittrain was over-stating things and creating a false choice of possible futures from which we must choose. I see no reason why we can't have the best of both worlds-a world full of plenty of tethered appliances, but also plenty of generativity and openness. In a follow-up essay, I pointed out how Apple's products create a particular problem for Zittrain's thesis because even though they are "sterile and tethered," there is no doubt that the company's approach has produced some wonderful results. As I said..
Personally... I prefer all those "general purpose" devices that Zittrain lionizes. But, again, we can have both. Let Steve Jobs be a control freak and keep those walls around Apple's digital garden high and tight if he wants. There are plenty of other wide open gardens for the rest of us to play in.
In my original review, I briefly mentioned another problem for the Zittrain thesis: old people! I was reminded about this when I was reading this New York Times article today entitled, "At a Certain Age, Simplicity Sells in High-Tech Gadgets," by Alina Tugend. Tugend argues:
Jonathan Zittrain must have been smiling as he read Leander Kahney's excellent Wired cover story this month, "How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong." In a sense, the article vindicates Zittrain's thesis in The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It.
Again, in his provocative book, Zittrain argues that, for a variety of reasons, the glorious days of the generative, open Internet and general-purpose PCs are supposedly giving way to closed networks and a world of what he contemptuously calls "sterile, tethered devices." And Apple products such as the iPhone, the iPod, and iTunes serve as prime examples of the troubling world that await us. And Kahney's article confirms that Apple is every bit as closed and insular as Zittrain suggests. Kahney nicely contrasts Apple with Google, a company that "embraces openness," trusts "the wisdom of crowds," and has its famous "Don't be evil" philosophy:
It's ironic, then, that one of the Valley's most successful companies ignored all of these tenets. Google and Apple may have a friendly relationship -- Google CEO Eric Schmidt sits on Apple's board, after all -- but by Google's definition, Apple is irredeemably evil, behaving more like an old-fashioned industrial titan than a different-thinking business of the future. Apple operates with a level of secrecy that makes Thomas Pynchon look like Paris Hilton. It locks consumers into a proprietary ecosystem. And as for treating employees like gods? Yeah, Apple doesn't do that either.
I'm heading off to the Tech Policy Summit shortly. It's taking place from Wed-Friday out in LA. Very impressive agenda of speakers and topics, ranging from privacy law, copyright policy, child safety, broadband and spectrum issues, and international competitiveness. I am speaking on a panel on day 2 of the event, but I might try to do some live blogging out there if I have the time.
One of the books I had planned to review next was True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society by Salon tech & media blogger Farhad Manjoo. Manjoo argues that new communications technologies are loosening our culture's grip on what people once called "objective reality." Truth, he argues, is becoming a relative thing in a world of information overload.
But I'm not sure I need to review Manjoo's book at all now since my comments would mostly repeat everything Steven Johnson had to say in his exchange with Manjoo on Slate last week. Here's one clip from Johnson's sharp response:
Saying that the Web amplifies deception is, to me, a bit like saying that New York is more dangerous than Baltimore because it has more murders. Yes, in absolute numbers, there are more untruths on the Web than we had in the heyday of print or mass media, but there are also more truths out there. We've seen that big, decentralized systems like open-source software and Wikipedia aren't perfect, but over time they do trend toward more accuracy and stability. I think that will increasingly be the case as more and more of our news migrates to the Web.
That's why I think it's important to note that many of your key examples are dependent on old-style, top-down media distribution. You talk about the American public's continuing belief in a connection between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein; the Swift Boat Veteran ads that distorted the truth of Kerry's record; Lou Dobbs ranting on CNN. These are all distortions that speak to the power of the old mass-media model or the even older political model of the executive branch.
Anyway, read their entire exchange. I certainly think Johnson gets the better of it.
Jonathan Zittrain, who is affiliated with Oxford University and Harvard's Berkman Center, recently released a provocatively titled book: The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It. It's an interesting read and I recommend you pick it up despite what I'll say about it in a moment. (Incidentally, if you ever have a chance to hear Jonathan speak, I highly recommend you do so. He is, bar none, the most entertaining tech policy geek in the world. Imagine Dennis Miller with a cyberlaw degree.)
Jonathan's book contrasts two different paradigms that he argues could define the Net's future: The "generative" Net versus what he refers to as a world of "tethered, sterile appliances." By "generative" he means technologies or networks that invite or allow tinkering and all sorts of creative uses. Think general-purpose personal computers and the traditional "best efforts" Internet. "Tethered, sterile appliances" by contrast, are technologies or networks that discourage or disallow tinkering. Basically, "take it or leave it" proprietary devices like Apple's iPhone or the TiVo, or online walled gardens like the old AOL and current cell phone networks.
Jonathan's thesis is that, for a variety of reasons [viruses, Spam, identify theft, etc], we run the risk of seeing the glorious days of the generative, open Net give way to more tethered devices and closed networks. He states:
