In the reading of The Wealth of Networks, written by Yochai Benkler. The author talks about the difference between the past industrial info economy and the present networked info economy.
For instance, now a day the society has move from mass media to a range of networked platforms, the advantage is to provide an individuals ability to communicate with large audiences and audiences a any location. The author, Benkler, emphasizes the positive and the advantage effects of the change, in particular the need for advertising or promoting, which include mass media has “been shown in extensive literature to exhibit a series of failures as platforms for public discourse… (and) give their owners inordinate power to shape opinion and information.”
Yet, in the past, where the information and the society are not as convenience as now a day, the society base on the information network economy is equal assess to the information. Benkler points out that the “declining price of computation, communication, and storage have, as a practical matter, placed the material means of information and cultural production in the hands of a significant fraction of the world’s population” In other word, the network economy has the advantage to grow bigger, better, and self- determinate, which help to organize the liberal ethics.
In the end of the first chapter the author talks about “allowing yesterday’s winners to dictate the terms of tomorrow’s economic competition would be disastrous. As social policy, missing an opportunity to enrich democracy, freedom, and justice in our society while maintaining or even enhancing our productivity would be unforgivable.” I personally think he is right. I mean it is always easy for people to make judgement or common on thing that already happen in the past. However, it makes me wonder, what will the future society and network economy be like. As well as how will people view us?
