Readings for lecture 2 - the networked information economy

.

Lecture 2 (Nov 3) will cover/for seminar 3 (Nov 8-9) you should read:

- Benkler, chapters 2 & 3

- Barlow, "A declaration of the independence of cyberspace" (1996) - 2 pages

- Benkler, chapters 1 & 4 can be read more cursorily

Comment on readings:

Benkler is very positive about the potential of social media to change societies for the better. Benkler's texts will later be supplemented by other texts that take a more critical stance. Benkler's enthusiasm stands in the shadow of earlier utopian Internet thinkers though. John Perry Barlow is one of them and we read his text in order to have a baseline and an object of comparison.

General comment:

This is the heaviest week in terms of readings and Benkler is perhaps not the easiest of texts to read. A more typical reading load will in the future be to read one chapter from Benkler, supplemented by other literature and for a total of ~ 75-100 pages per week.

DO NOTE: A great way to start reading the book is to watch this TEDtalk where Benkler presents some of the basic ideas of his book in the form of an 18 minutes long talk/video. His TEDtalk profile is a good way to read something about Benkler.

.