two Benkler quotes
I have just begun reading The Wealth of Networks by Yochai Benkler. I’ve read less than fifty pages of the mammoth 515-page tome (set in 10pt Garamond, no less!) and have already been thoroughly impressed. Benkler’s ideas are important to my own ruminations here about Atomized Enterprises. As I work through the book, I will post brief excerpts here that I think are interesting. This post contains two quotes from the Introduction:
p. 17-18:
Different technologies make different kinds of human action and interaction easier or harder to perform. All other things being equal, things that are easier to do are more likely to be done and things that are harder to do are less likely to be done. All other things are never equal. That is why technological determinism in the strict sense–if you have technology “t” you should expect social structure or relation “s” to emerge–is false…Neither deterministic nor wholly malleable, technology sets some parameters of individual and social action. It can make some actions, relationships, organizations and institutions easier to pursue, and others harder…The same technologies of networked computers can be adopted in very different patterns. There is no guarantee that networked information technology will lead to the improvements in innovation, freedom and justice that I suggest are possible…The way we develop will, in significant measure, depend on choices we make in the next decade or so.
I like the above quote [emphasis mine] because it indicates that Benkler’s analysis goes beyond the naïve technoutopianism that we as geeks are somewhat prone to.
p. 8-9:
As collaboration among far-flung individuals becomes more common, the idea of doing things that requires cooperation with others becomes much more attainable, and the range of projects individuals can choose as their own therefore qualitatively increases. The very fluidity and low commitment required of any cooperative relationship increases the range and diversity of cooperative relations people can enter, and therefore of collaborative projects they can conceive of as open to them.
The above quote is a terse statement of the loosely coupled nature of Atomic Enterprises. With apologies to Mark Twain, this passage seems to say in essence, ‘don’t let your job interfere with your career’, something with which I am in strong agreement.
There will be many more quotes from Benkler here, so watch this space. If you prefer, you can peruse the full text of the book online. TCall me old fashioned, but I’m reading from a hardcover edition — this seems like a book I want to own physically.
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