{"id":4022,"date":"2012-02-15T11:33:45","date_gmt":"2012-02-15T16:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/?p=4022"},"modified":"2012-02-15T13:24:02","modified_gmt":"2012-02-15T18:24:02","slug":"your-fathers-web-or-at-least-your-older-brothers-web","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/2012\/02\/15\/your-fathers-web-or-at-least-your-older-brothers-web\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Father’s Web? Or at least your Older Brother’s Web?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m teaching Internet and Politics for the first time since 2009. \u00a0When I taught the course then, I was filled with optimism about the transformational potential of the Web. \u00a0I assigned folks like Henry Jekins<\/a>, Lawrence Lessig<\/a> and Yochai Benkler,<\/a> each in their own way preaching a gospel of societal salvation through the web (or at least a possibility of it), be it through convergence culture<\/a>, free culture<\/a>, or the networked information economy<\/a>. \u00a0But in 2012, this approach to teaching the course seems naively quaint. \u00a0It’s not as if these authors were oblivious to the dangers of rationalization and centralization of the web, but each framed control over the Web as an open question. \u00a0It seems much less of that to me…. Maybe that’s why Lawrence Lessig has moved on to study money in politics.<\/p>\n

In his 2010 book, The Master Switch<\/a>, Tim Wu captures the sense that the open Web is your father’s web, or at least your older brother’s web:<\/p>\n

Without exception, the brave new technologies of the twentieth century\u2014free use of which was originally encouraged, for the sake of further\u00a0invention and individual expression\u2014eventually evolved into privately controlled industrial behemoths, the\u00a0\u201cold media\u201d giants of the\u00a0twenty-first,through which the flow and nature of\u00a0content would be strictly controlled for\u00a0reasons of commerce.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not that there’s anything wrong with commerce. \u00a0But as Jaron Lanier skillfully points out, who makes money off of the Internet anymore?<\/p>\n

Every few decades, a new communications technology appears, bright with\u00a0promise and possibility. It inspires a generation to dream of a better society,new forms of expression, alternative types of journalism. Yet each newtechnology eventually reveals its flaws, kinks,\u00a0and limitations. For consumers,the technical novelty can wear thin, giving way to various kinds\u00a0of\u00a0dissatisfaction with the\u00a0quality of content (which may tend\u00a0toward the chaotic and the vulgar) and\u00a0the reliability or security of service. From industry\u2019s\u00a0perspective, the invention may inspire other dissatisfactions: a threat to the revenues of existing\u00a0information channels that the new technology makes less essential, if not\u00a0obsolete; a difficulty commoditizing (i.e., making a salable\u00a0product out of) the\u00a0technology\u2019s potential; or too much variation in standards or\u00a0\u00a0protocols of use to allow\u00a0one to market a high quality product that will answer\u00a0the consumers\u2019\u00a0dissatisfactions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Who remembers the unpredictable “chaotic and vulgar” look of MySpace<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

compare that to the predictable clean look of Facebook:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tell me if I (and Tim Wu) are being too cynical here? Is it Facebook’s fault if it just had a better design aesthetic than MySpace? So people want predictability, so what? Technology can’t change human behavior?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m teaching Internet and Politics for the first time since 2009. \u00a0When I taught the course then, I was filled with optimism about the transformational potential of the Web. \u00a0I assigned folks like Henry Jekins, Lawrence Lessig and Yochai Benkler, each in their own way preaching a gospel of societal salvation through the web (or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12364,549,12363],"class_list":["post-4022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-master-switch","tag-open-web","tag-tim-wu"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4022"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4025,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4022\/revisions\/4025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}