The wisdom of the networks

January 7, 2006 by Jeff Jarvis

I, too, am looking forward to Yochai Benkler’s book, The Wealth of Networks. Benkler left me slackjawed here.

  • Ted

    The internet changes EVERYTHING. Trite, but true.

    Micrsoft is no longer all powerful. It seems that Google
    has taken on that role.

    Jeff frequently points out that the Old Stream Media
    isn’t what it used to be … because the bloggers are
    out there “speaking truth to power”.

    Sometime soon, education as we know it will start to
    take hits. At both the K-12 and University level.
    Learning enough to answer test questions correctly
    can be done easily over the interent. Proctored
    physical testing locations, as is currently done with
    the ACT, SAT, GMAT, LSAT, MCAT etc. can provide
    proof against cheating. Credentialing, which is what
    most education has become these days, can be
    performed quite efficiently. And the cost differentials
    is gonna blow “brick and mortar” educational facilities
    away!

  • http://unbeknownst.net KirkH

    Benkler is like Larry Lessig but he’s less ambitious and at least as smart. You can read some of his work here. It’s very dense stuff but he’s one of the few with a brain big enough to juggle law, tech, and human nature at the same time and still has enough brain left over to make reasonable predictions.