{"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":90,"pdf_page":93,"physical_index":93,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"7c8e5534b99608e27f7cd31b626a5cbc5b96abb45e5e1973bf1ef93bc4d29283"},"chapter":"Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age","content":"THE DIGERATI ENTREPRENEUR\n\nOn one side of the informational coin are the digerati entrepreneurs. Just as the working digerati try to distance themselves as far away as possible from industrial workers, so does the entrepreneur digerati construct their identities as a reverse image of the persona of the industrial capitalist. The industrial capitalist is characterized by his passion to accumulate capital; digerati entrepreneurs, in contrast, are characterized by their passion for network technology. The former sees technology as a means of production, that is, as a means to another end. The latter see the development of technology as an end unto itself. Even the one criterion that might have put the old industrial capitalist and the new digerati entrepreneur in the same social category—their wealth—is seen in the digital discourse as qualitatively different. Referring to the founders of Microsoft, the narrator in “Microserfs” argues that “Microsoft’s millionaires are the first generation of North American nerd wealth” (Coupland 1994), distinguishing their “nerd” wealth from that of previous, industrial-age moguls. Not unlike the way “old money” (based on inheritance) was distinguished at the beginning of the industrial era from the “nouveau riches” (based on entrepreneurship).\n\nAccording to the digital discourse, digerati entrepreneurs are different from industrial-age capitalists because for the digerati, business does not all revolve around profit but on contributing to technological progress; their success is measured not only in terms of material gains but also in terms of their technological skill, or of how “techie,” “geek,” and “nerd” they are. The August 2004 cover of Wired, for example, is adorned by a teaser that reads “The Top 100 Geeks”; two out of the four geeks mentioned on the cover are iconic digerati entrepreneurs: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs (Cover 2004). It is precisely the dehierarchized conception of network work that makes it plausible to describe two of the most powerful and rich people on the planet as underdogs, an idea I will return to later in this chapter.\n\nIn the digital discourse, reverence is directed toward the entrepreneurcum-technological nerd. The real incentive for the new informational entrepreneur to engage in business, according to the digital discourse, is not making more money but making a real social contribution: discovering new opportunities for network technology and opening up new frontiers for the network society. In more theoretical terms, technology, as a means of production, takes center stage, while ownership over these means, the component of power in the technological nexus—that which distinguishes classes—recedes to the background, leaving only vague traces.\n\nThe digital discourse’s portrayal of the new digerati entrepreneurs— industry moguls like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or dot-com millionaires of a more modest caliber—usually follows this narrative. Here is one example from Wired. Josh Harris is a thirty-nine-year-old dot-com millionaire who now invests his fortune in a new revolutionary media project that is unlikely, according to his own estimates, to yield much, if any, profit. Harris assesses that he “could have gone into anything after Jupiter [where he made his fortune]. I could have been an industrial titan . . . But I didn’t want to be like those guys” (Platt 2000; emphasis mine). What are “those guys” like? According to Harris, “Most wealthy people just waste their time making more and more money.” In contrast, he says about himself, “I’m one of the few who actually know how to spend it.” The author of the article concurs: “Making money . . . is not Harris’ primary goal these days. He’s too busy spending it” on unprofitable, but technologically revolutionary, projects (Platt 2000). Harris, like Weber before him, laments the iron cage of capitalism with its internal drive for the endless accumulation of capital. However, he not only criticizes it but also posits an alternative to this spirit of capitalism, one where the entrepreneur is motivated by the endless progress of technology.\n\n90\n\nMedia and New Capitalism in the Digital Age","previous_page":89,"next_page":91}