{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","title":"Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age The Spirit of Networks","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781349379743","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","id":"8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","uuid":"8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","title":"Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age The Spirit of Networks","normalized_title":"mediaandnewcapitalisminthedigitalagethespiritofnetworks","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781349379743","isbns":["9781349379743","9780230106062"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":258,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Media%20and%20New%20Capitalism%20in%20the%20Digital%20Age%20The%20Spirit%20of%20Networks","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a/search"},"page":{"printed_page":108,"pdf_page":111,"physical_index":111,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"3b2f3f81adbf75a3c5133ce4242140150c00e651749a4a7d8270c0c19b2c9838"},"chapter":"Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age","content":"Power to the People:\n\nDemocratization and Individual Empowerment\n\nAccording to the digital discourse, network production entails more than what managerial discourse calls “streamlining” (i.e., the rendering of preexisting production processes more smooth and efficient). While this quantitative progress no doubt takes place, it is the qualitative and revolutionary leap brought about by network technology that is of greater consequence. Network production is production made not simply better, but different. It entails a new gestalt, the full scope of which could not have been fully materialized and grasped only a few years back, not even through much of the history of digital technology. While the history of the digital discourse, and Wired as its epitome, is relatively short, one can nevertheless delineate a trend whereby networks are increasingly seen as the centerpiece of the digital revolution, displacing both information and communication.\n\nAt first, the information revolution was seen in the digital discourse as being anchored in the ability to translate the world into binary code—to informationalize it and hence subject it to computational manipulations. The technological centerpiece of that discourse was therefore the standalone computer—a machine of great autonomous computational ability (exemplified in mainframes, artificial intelligence, robots, etc.)—and applications such as Word and Excel. Then the interconnection of individual computers over communication lines and the ability to transfer information and eradicate time and space was seen as the hallmark of the information revolution. The technological emblem of communication was the infrastructure of the Internet and applications such as e-mail clients and Web browsers. Most recently, the network—not simply as a channel for the transfer of information between nodes, but as a site unto itself—has displaced both information and communication as the central locus of the information revolution. While here, too, the Internet is the centerpiece technology, this latest phase is distinguished in the digital discourse from the previous one with such terms as “second-generation Web” (Anderson 2006), or “Web 2.0” (Levy 2005), referring to network-based applications such as Wiki (which enables Wikipedia), Google, blogs, and MySpace, which are based on activation and production of content by users. Google, for example, can be seen as an application for the accumulation and organization of information regarding users’ choices; MySpace and YouTube are only as vibrant and dynamic as their users. Hence, a recent article in Wired identifies the “death” of the PC as one of the leading trends in digital culture and the digital economy in particular and declares “Desktop R.I.P.” (Tanz 2007). The PC, the article announces, is being replaced by “the cloud” (Tanz 2007)—that is, the network.\n\n108\n\nMedia and New Capitalism in the Digital Age","previous_page":null,"next_page":109}