Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Dyson, Esther (1997), Release 2.0, Broadway Books, New York, NY 10036, Retrieved on 2010-11-13
Folksonomies: new media www internet futurism Memes
03 JAN 2011
The Market is Not Darwinian
What is a market? And what does it have to do with the Internet? The fashion right now, one I follow, is to think of the Internet as a living environment, a place for societies, communities, and institutions to grow--rather than as something constructed, a superhighway, for example. That leads to appropriate metaphors, looking at the Net as something to be cultivated and nurtured rather than built or engineered. (Only its rules need to be designed so that it can grow in good health.) The stru... 1 
notes
notesThe marketplace is not survival of the fittest, where an invisible hand allows for the emergence of the best strategies, but an artificial system where strategies, good or bad, are perpetually nurtured.
03 JAN 2011
The Federal Origin of the Internet
Ironically, for all its free-market libertarianism, the Internet was a creation of the U.S. Government. The government still owned most of it in the early '90s, although and increasing proportion of hte equipment over which it ran sat in computer centers in universities, research organizations, and private companies. The Internet, after all, runs over existing phone lines as well as over its own high-speed, high-bandwidth telecommunications "backbones." Although it appears to be free to its u... 1 notes
notesDespite its libertarian characteristics, the Internet was the product of the Federal Government.
03 JAN 2011
Esther Dyson Describes the NIIAC
The NIIAC was a well-meaning attempt to collect a diversity of opinion to make sure the emerging "NII" was useful to all Americans, and it probably did more good than I suspected at the time ... The members included the usual suspects: a librarian; a grade school teacher; a communications workers' union official; the head of BMI, a copyright agency; several telecom executives; several "content" people, including a legal publisher and a music-company executive; and old lawyer fried of the Clin... 1 notes
notesThis is the organization Al Gore formed to help formulate policy on how the fed could grow the Internet.
03 JAN 2011
Community vs. Culture
Communities often have a culture, but there is an important distinction between culture and community. Culture is a set of rules, perceptions, language, history, and the like. It is embodied in books and songs, people's minds, and Websites. Culture can be learned, even though there are some communities that believe you need to be born into them to be a member (as in Germany and many Asian countries, as well as certain Jewish groups).
By contrast, a community is a set of relationships. You oou... 1 notes
notesCulture can exist without people, but communities are made of people.
03 JAN 2011
Lurkers Are Not Part of the Community
Clearly, some things do not foster community. You do not need a real identity, but you need some identity. You need to have a voice, a reputation, a presence to be part of a community, because it is (at least) a two-way propositions. Thus "lurkers," people who only read or listen, are not really part of a community. They may fancy themselves to be, but no one would miss them if they left. They are fans, not friends. Lurkers may latch on to a culture, but they do not contribute to it. (That's ...
1 Lurkers are fans, they are not participants; however, they could become participants if the system encourages it, like how Slashdot does with their comment rating system.
03 JAN 2011
The Net is a Playground of Entropy
It may be fun to surf the Net and follow things randomly, but there's value in structure. The Net is a playground of entropy--the structurelessness that occurs when energy dissipates from a system. Yes, the Net also fosters self-organization, when individuals apply their energy, selectng and filtering information for others (aided by search and filtering tools). But there's rarely uch internal structure to what's selected; the structures created by links are usually webs of cross-references r... 1 notes
notesThe net is information entropy in the way things are associated, without strong semantic connections, but mere relations in links.
03 JAN 2011
The DIfference Between Physical and Cyber Communities
While terrestrial governments are natural monopolies in their own territories, cyberspace governments compete. Terrestrial governments get overthrown when things get too bad; cyberspace governments simply lose citizens, much as a business loses customers. Former members may even go into competition with their old communities. The terrestrial government game is all-or-nothing (despite the possibility of loyal opposition), whereas Net governments an coexist. "Citizenship" is voluntary.
A Net-ba... 1 notes
notesPhysical communities are an all or nothing game, they must maintain governing power, while cyber communities are purely consent of the governed, or people will vote with their mindshare.
03 JAN 2011
ISPs Can Be Regulated Like Banks
The closest analogy to how ISPs operate on the Net is how banks operate on the terrestrial plane today. In most countries, banks are highly regulated, and they have a duty (in most countries) to know their customers. Although their primary mission is to serve their customers, to some extent they operate as (sometimes reluctant) arms of government. They are supposed to report not just illegal transaction, but also questionable ones--whenever someone shows up with more than $10,000 in cash, for... 1 notes
notesIn order to Bank in the United States, the company agrees to abide by certain rules and reporting practices, ISPs could be subjected to the same.
03 JAN 2011
The Importance of Antitrust
...governments and communities have to establish and enforce strong antitrust laws--which is basically fighting any group that gets too large and usurps power. Antitrust fosters decentralization of power, whether from government or business hands. Right now, antitrust authorities are already cooperating across borders in a number of cases, including worldwide companies such as Microsoft and Beoing. But it's hard for any establishment--including governments-to enforce antitrust with enthusiasm... 1 notes
notesThe importance and difficulty of preventing any organization from becoming so large as to dominate the system.
03 JAN 2011
How People are Paid for Their Attention
The result of the new economics is that people are often paid for their attention, implicitly or explicitly. They get to see television free in return for watching commercials. Their magazines and newspapers are subsidized or supplied free by advertisers. Nowadays bus shelters, baseball stadiums, and even those little refresher towelettes on airlines such as Lufthansa are supported by advertisers eager for your attention.
You are also rewarded with content according to the "quality" of attent... 1 notes
notesConsumers are rewarded by advertisers and companies for the attention and quality of attention they pay to products.
03 JAN 2011
The Consumer is Not King
Marketers glibly say that the consumer is king, but in practice he's not. In the real world, experienced marketing and consumer-affairs hands will tell you, consumers aren't very good at protecting their own interests. They're too busy consuming, or working, or just living regular lives. The groups that claim to protect their interests often end up with their own agendas, which may have more to do with Washington power battles and fund-raising than with genuine consumer interests.Folksonomies: capitalism
Folksonomies: capitalism
1 notes
notesThis is a common-wisdom that is not true in practice, consumers are too busy too look out for their own interests.
03 JAN 2011
Internet Rule: Don't Get Into Silly Fights
If you forget this rule, the visibility you will have on the Net is likely to remind you. (Too often, people get into ridiculous flame wars that are embarrasing to all who watch.) In general, it is easier to walk away from conflicts on the Net than it may be in real life. You can refuse to read someone's mail and refuse to let him provoke you once you've left an argument. Just don't let public postings lure you back in.
If something or someone is holding you back or annoying you, you don't ne... 1 notes
notesA great principle for life online. Avoid flame wars. They just make you and the other person look silly to the whole world.
03 JAN 2011
Always make new mistakes!
Always make new mistakes!
This is my all-time favorite rule for living. I like it so much that I use it as my sig file--the little quote that gets inserted along with my address and other coordinates at the end of each of my e-mails. I still have new mistakes to make. The challenge is not to avoid mistakes, but to learn from them. And then to go forward and make new ones and learn again. There's no shame in making new mistakes if you acknowledge and benefit from them.
1 A good principle for life.
