Benkler’s key addition in “Coase’s Penguin” was a framework for understanding why and when groups of individuals motivated primarily by the cultural significance of their work can be more efficient than markets or firms in the allocation of creative effort. In other words, how the web creates an environment where massively valuable projects like Li... See more

Here again, Eghbal provides a framework that transcends the open-source context that inspired it. In a digital economy, goods are either excludable or not (meaning paywall-able, essentially), and rivalrous or not (meaning infinitely copyable at zero marginal cost or not). The resulting 2 × 2 matrix describes just about every way to make a buck onli... See more

This is why so many of the best programmers are libertarians. In our world, you sink or swim, and there are no excuses. When those far removed from the creation of wealth — undergraduates, reporters, politicians — hear that the richest 5% of the people have half the total wealth, they tend to think injustice! An experienced programmer would be more

... See more