The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires (Vintage)
internet. Landline TV, restricted for years to one or two channels in a few developed
Martin Gurri • Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium
Moving to a world where protocols and not proprietary platforms dominate would solve many issues currently facing the internet today. Rather than relying on a few giant platforms to police speech online, there could be widespread competition, in which anyone could design their own interfaces, filters, and additional services, allowing whichever one... See more
Mike Masnick • Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech
Vail didn’t do any of this out of altruism. He saw that a possible route to monopoly—or at least a near monopoly, which was what AT&T had always been striving for—could be achieved not through a show of muscle but through an acquiescence to political supervision. Yet his primary argument was an idea. He argued that telephone service had become
... See moreJon Gertner • The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
We sometimes treat the information industries as if they were like any other enterprise, but they are not, for their structure determines who gets heard. It is in this context that Fred Friendly, onetime CBS News president, made it clear that before any question of free speech comes the question of “who controls the master switch.”