NPR – All Things Considered
Columbia law professor Tim Wu writes that information technologies have all gone through a similar life cycle: “Information technologies give rise to industries, and industries to empires.” Wu says this cycle ultimately destroys the innovative spirit that creates new information technologies and the openness that typifies them in their early years. In his new book, The Master Switch
‘The Master Switch’ is the Best Book of 2010
Ours is a vision of a transformed educational economy, one made possible by the invention of the web and the personal computer. To what extent, however, is the realization of a new educational order dependent on the companies that control the networks and the hardware of the Internet age? If the future of education will be increasingly be produced and delivered via the computer and the web, how likely is it that the values of the market will override the values of academy?
In The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires, Tim Wu does not examine the place of higher ed in the information economy. But I think that it is essential that our community pay attention to the lessons that he draws. In The Master Switch, Wu traces the history of the major information technology revolutions, and demonstrates how they all started with the promise of democratization and transformation and ended up with a realities of monopoly, limited choice, and restricted opportunities for expression.
Full article here:
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology_and_learning/the_master_switch_is_the_best_book_of_2010