Managing Digital Business Chapter Presentation The Internets Impact on Culture & Society: Good or Bad?

General info Book mission: Will the Internet, on its own, improve the human condition and expand individual capacity to choose? If not, what is required to assure that technological change does serve mankind? progress as freedom. As the historian Robert Nisbet so elegantly put it: the condition as well as the ultimate purpose of progress is the greatest possible degree of freedom of the individual. Net Skeptics o Example: Andrew Keen Abandon all hope, ye who enter here! o In brief:
Must avoid siren song of democratized media, citizen journalism and the cult of the amateur Technology that arms every citizen with the means to be an opinionated artist or writer produces a techno-utopian delusion similar to Marxs fantasies of a communist society: Moores Law: doubling of computing capability every two years Each advance in technology is not necessarily accompanied by an equivalent improvement in the condition of man. Instead: IT is leading us into oblivion of cultural amnesia, narcissism, childish rejection of expertise, wisdom & quality of creative elites. o World becomes flat: genius can no longer rise above sea of mediocrity, noise & triviality.

In detail: Web 2.0: utopian movement headquartered in Silicon Valley: worships creative amateur everyone can & should use digital media to express & realize themselves Enable internet users to author their own content (author: Twilight, film director: example, musician: Justin Bieber) / technology that arms every citizen with the means to be an opinionated artist/writer o Empower creativity, smash elitism (Hollywood)/level playing field between experts & amateurs: user-generated online content, radically democratize media, content redistribution, authentic community. Examples: Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Craig Newmark, Larry Lessig, Chris Anderson, Jeff Jarvis, Tim OReilly, John Battelle. Sceptics: sounds like a mixture of hippie counterculture & Marx: Individual self-realization: nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes Moral obligation to develop technology (e.g. Mozart) VS moral obligation to question development of technology Personalization of culture through user-generated content: obsessive focus on realization of the self Narcissism o Dangerous for vitality of culture & arts: personalized content reflects ourselves rather than world around us (e.g. Blog: my thoughts. Used to be private: diary). Moores Law: doubling of computing capability every two years BUT: doesnt necessarily doubles improvement for human condition Instead: Law of Unintended Consequences (Max Weber) o Revolutionizing cultural habits, ways of entertaining ourselves, ways of defining who we are. Newspapers are in free-fall (iPad), network television is shaken (online streaming), music industry drained of revenues (piracy). (cyber mobbing?) Purpose of media industry: discover, nurture & reward elite talent (money) push system of telling people what to like (now: pull system of choosing what you like) o Democratize media democratize talent cultural flattening: opinionated. o 1984 prediction of future: disappearance of individual right to self-expression Instead: overabundance of authors, but no longer an audience available o Other examples Net Lovers o Brief Overview

net lovers who think the good ol days of the Internet were truly great but are nonetheless pessimistic about the future Internet exceptionalism and cyber libertarianism, a vision of progress as empowerment and uplifting of the user Middle Ground: Pragmatic Optimism o Adam Thierers response to Net Skeptics Pessimists Net is polarizing Net facilitates fragmentation Balkanization / mob rule Homogeneity close-mindedness Diminishes personhood Misuse & abuse Dumbs down masses Anonymity: debase culture & no accountability Information overload (learning & reading) Cost of free (business model, quality) Individual effort Professionalism Proprietary Stupidity of crowds & exploit free labour Optimists Net is participatory Net facilitates personalization A global village Heterogeneity diversity Self-actualization Liberation & empowerment Educate masses Anonymity: encourage debate & whistleblowing Information abundance (new learning) Benefit of free (gift economy) Mass collaboration Amateur creativity Open systems Wisdom of crowds (crowdsourcing)

Middle ground? Problem of both: o Overstate severity of identified problems o Fail to appreciate benefits of evolutionary dynamism Dynamism: Future is unpredictable, spontaneous, ever shifting, a pattern created by uncoordinated, independent decisions o These decisions shape a dynamic future no one can foresee inherently unstable & unknowable this creates anxiety for both! o Stasis (both are here: skeptics regulate to curtail, lovers regulate to keep the same) VS Dynamism (WORD CLOUD) Regulated, engineered world VS constant creation, discovery, competition Stability & control VS evolution & learning Scared of future VS embrace future Progress requires a central blueprint VS progress as a decentralized, evolutionary process Mistakes are permanent disasters VS mistakes are correctable by-products of experimentation Predictability VS surprise Resist change VS welcoming the future Pragmatic Optimism Embrace amazing technological changes but with humility and appreciation for disruptive impact & pace of change. o How to mitigate negative impacts without being paranoid / how to cope with turbulent change Empowered masses, but dont necessarily have something to say. o Quality counts, not volume Abundance is better than deprivation Valid concerns: e.g. media who will take up efforts of large media institutions when they go under due to disintermediation?

Emphasis not on a carefully outlined future or build[ing] a single bridge from here to there, for neither here nor there is a single point, but on the process of discovery by which the future evolves Concerns shouldnt necessarily be answered by government: this would be stasis mentality & coercion Techno-apocalypse never comes: cultures assimilate & normalize new technologies o Adapt & learn to live with it

Cycle of Technological Revolutions New technology appears o Pessimists: fear changes, sky is about to fall, will overthrow traditions, beliefs, values, institutions, business models; previous generation o Optimists: rainbows, rosy colored, improves mankind, norms & institutions must adapt for society to continue its march forward Web 1.0: Postman VS Negroponte Postman o Information: form of garbage that will lead to a culture without a moral foundation if left unchecked o Technophile: see only what technology can do VS what it will undo Negroponte o Dark side of technology could destroy old order: this is inevitable! Force of nature! Find ways how technology can draw people into greater world harmony o Computers are not moral, cant decide between life & death. o But: decentralizing, globalizing, harmonizing & empowering Access, mobility, ability to effect change Media abundance, unlimited communication, connectivity

Learning, Culture & Truth o Pessimists Amateur creations, user-generated content, peer-based forms of production Drown out professional media because of competing amateur content, no more high quality funded & disseminated Protection of enlightened class Zero-sum: more amateur = less professional (because of drowning out) o E.g. Wikipedia Decline of authority, death of objectivity: truth becomes relativistic Knowledge withers away into information information as powerlessness Superficial observation VS deep analysis Shrill opinion VS considered judgement Digital technologies entice consumerism Purchases become more convenient Everybody is just in it for the money (BUT: Wikipedia?) Free Culture Parasitic copying & piracy E.g. plagiarism (how many cases every year?) Elite makes money off the back of free labour o Many websites are agglomerations of creative unpaid contributions o Lords of computing clouds Learning Dumbing down of masses Disappearance of reading, writing, other arts o Optimists Disruptive but empower & enlighten individuals, benefit society Amateur creations, user-generated content, peer-based forms of production Adequate or superior to traditional content Displace some institutions/norms, but create new ones Collective intelligence & wisdom of crowds Shift in balance of power between consumers & salesmen

New business models: we-dia (media) user-generated content & citizen journalism Anyone can become a journalist at little cost & with global reach o E.g. little boy pretending to be journalism on Twitter Real choice & genuine voices not necessarily diminished quality! BUT: technology enables many to become authors, but not having something to say Exploit labour: no. instead: sense of connectedness

Personalization o Optimists Daily Me: RSS feeds, Facebook, Google Alerts, Twitter, newsletters Tailored, automated search results empowers silenced masses Participatory culture promotes greater cultural heterogeneity; better chance to be heard Openness, transparency, exposure to new thinking & opinions, diversity of thought Information overload Specialization of knowledge, focus on areas of interest long tail Quantity of information has exploded, but so has the quality of our filters better at ordering information o Information that is most right for you, screen out noise/clutter o Pessimists Daily Me Narcissistic culture where exaggeration catches attention Degeneration of democracy into rule of mob & rumour mill Hyper-customization of websites leading to social fragmentation & isolation leading to political extremism Group polarization: weakening social glue that binds society together & provides citizens with a common group identity o Death of deliberative democracy? Breakdown of system of government? Corroding moral values o Act on most deviant instincts o Succumb to most destructive vices o Anonymity leads to less accountability & bad manners Homogenization, close-mindedness, online echo (narcissistic), information overload, brainwashing Social fragmentation, polarization (, balkanization, extremism (exaggeration catches attention), decline of deliberative democracy (rule of mob & rumour mill;)

Thoughts on pessimists Raise valid concerns, but calls for extreme reactionary solutions are too radical & impractical o Technology only advances & cannot be put back in the bottle forward momentum. o Valid concerns: impact on professional media (e.g. how to fund) & decline of authority Snobbery & elitism are not conductive to reaching a compromise Look at worst individuals using Internet Daily Me leading to extremism, fanaticism & radicalization? Not likely. No evidence that Internet is becoming more segregated over time. Instead: more integration & experience unanticipated viewpoints. These individuals have always existed, now using Internet one can counter them o Answer to bad speech is more speech, not less speech o History: extremist, totalitarian movements rose to power by taking over media platforms Decentralization of media counters such take-overs. Hyper-nostalgia: good ol days were so much better this is subjective. Sharecropper (exploit free labour): overstated. Ignore non-monetary benefits! Zero-sum game net loss of individual effort & personhood: no, but complementary. Thoughts on optimists Internet generally benefitting society, but optimists too romantic Overplay benefits of collective intelligence, collaboration & role of amateur production o E.g. Wiki is not a replacement for professional media, but a complement to it. o Free & open source software wont replace all proprietary business models

o Co-exist & co-compete! Ignore downsides: piracy (argue it is something positive or inevitable), hacking, identity theft o Piracy: deprives creators of the incentive to produce Internet will not automatically preserve (or improve) health of democratic politics. Shape, yes. But not radically so. Technology is not an autonomous force this is utopian. Not all change is good change. Need to understand & address downsides without dismissing critics.

Key Takeaways Technological change creates new problems, even as it solves old ones: Opinion: Net effect positive or negative? Depending on govt. intervention? Information abundance better than information poverty Disruption and transformation wrought by the Digital Revolution will NOT always be rosy or easy, but cannot command tides of technological change to halt. o But: not just resignation to inevitability of change o Instead: Confidence in trajectory of freedom: over time, constantly upward. Progress as freedom, but progress requires freedom (to discover, innovate, experiment) in order for technology to achieve its full potential to improve human condition & expand individual capacity to choose Internet etc arent going away, so have to figure out how to deal with them in a responsible manner o Practical difficulties of halting/slowing progress & coercion would be necessary in order to do so Future: increasing abundance, but with better filters to manage it. o Solution: offer specific suggestions for how to harness change for the better. E.g. Powers & Freeman: self-help tips on how to assimilate IT into our lives.