Viral Spiral: How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own - Hardcover

Bollier, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1595583963 ISBN 13: 9781595583963

Publisher: New Press, The, 2009

Synopsis

A stunning narrative history of the emergence of electronic "free culture," from open-source software and Creative Commons licenses to remixes and Web 2.0—in the tradition of Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture.

A world organized around centralized control, strict intellectual property rights, and hierarchies of credentialed experts is under siege. A radically different order of society based on open access, decentralized creativity, collaborative intelligence, and cheap and easy sharing is ascendant. —from Viral Spiral

From free and open-source software, Creative Commons licenses, Wikipedia, remix music and video mashups, peer production, open science, open education, and open business, the world of digital media has spawned a new "sharing economy" that increasingly competes with entrenched media giants.

Reporting from the heart of this "free culture" movement, journalist and activist David Bollier provides the first comprehensive history of the attempt by a global brigade of techies, lawyers, artists, musicians, scientists, businesspeople, innovators, and geeks of all stripes to create a digital republic committed to freedom and innovation. Viral Spiral—the term Bollier coins to describe the almost-magical process by which Internet users can come together to build online commons and tools—brilliantly interweaves the disparate strands of this eclectic movement. The story describes major technological developments and pivotal legal struggles, as well as fascinating profiles of hacker Richard Stallman, copyright scholar Lawrence Lessig, and other colorful figures.

A milestone in reporting on the Internet by one of our leading media critics, Viral Spiral is for anyone seeking to take the full measure of the new digital era.

About this title

About the Author:

David Bollier is a journalist, activist, and public policy analyst as well as editor of onthecommons.org and co-founder of Public Knowledge. Senior Fellow at the Norman Lear Center, Bollier is the author of numerous highly praised books, including Brand Name Bullies and Silent Theft. He lives in Amherst, MA.

Review:

There is a transformation taking place in the way people create, organize and think about culture, declares public-policy analyst Bollier (Brand Name Bullies, 2005, etc.). He pins this transformation on the Internet, and particularly on "Web 2.0," which is more focused on conversation and community than its predecessor. Bollier believes that efforts to share software, upload videos and tend to Friendster pages are forging a new commons in the 19th-century sense of the term: a resource shared and managed by all its users.... [T]he author tells a good and important story, one that is likely to gain more relevance as time goes on and Web 2.0 has a greater impact on />

A good book for specialists and advocates....

About this edition

• Publisher: New Press, The
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1595583963
• ISBN 13: 9781595583963
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 344