The Wealth of Network: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom – Yochai Benkler, Yale University Press, 2006

In many ways, my experiences and review of this book exemplifies one of  the messages that Benkler is expounding within the pages of Wealth of Networks.  Namely, that information wants to (and should) be free, whereas tangible added value services can (and should) be charged for.   Whilst the text of this book is available freely from Benkler’s web site, for ease of convenience, practicality of reading and balancing on the bathroom windowsill, I chose to pay the £20.00 for a print version.

At it’s heart, this is a treatise about political economy and how decision makers need to take into account the transformative impact of new modes of communication technology on knowledge and wealth creation. The book spends some considerable time discussing the creation of “public good”, not as a by product of the work of self interested individuals (or narrowly focused interest groups), but from what Benkler dubs as “social production”, where mutually interested individuals come together in networks to effect social & political change or to contribute & collaborate on global projects (Linux).

Social production involves the collaborative discussion, creation and dissemination of “user generated content”, such as the open source Linux or online Wikipedia encyclopaedia.  This commons based peer production is characterized by weak (but well defined) property rights, an emphasis on non monetary gains and reliance on existing “socially generated” knowledge.

Benkler argues that the nature of these “social production” groups is essentially transitory and form / disband spontaneously depending on the goals, aspirations and interests of the individual contributors.

Benkler clearly subscribes to the all levelling, democratising and empowering view of the Internet.  Fortunately he manages to nicely juxtapose this view with an account of the inherent hierarchy that persists – some voices are heard more than others.   He explains how the infrastructure of the Internet (Cisco routers) can be programmed to favour traffic originating from a particular subscriber; how the Internet behemoth Google can tailor the search results – even removing certain sites all together (Google works with the Chinese government to remove search results relating to dissident organisations – when the search comes from within China).

The book suffers from a wealth of unsubstantiated and ill defined anecdotes.  I felt myself wanting to know “How much?”, “When exactly?”, “How big, how new?”, “Which company are you referring to?”

The book is in three parts.  Part one, considers the economic issues of “social production”, where Benkler takes the stand that this is inherently superior to the mass market, “private production” of traditional corporations.  He argues that decentralisation will reduce costs and lead to innovation.  In contrast to this decentralised, innovative marketplace, he details the proprietary, rights based model used and defended by the likes of Hollywood, record labels and pharmaceutical giants.

Part two looks at politics and the contribution that the Internet makes to political freedom and individual autonomy – mostly by lowering the cost of entry to getting your views to a mass audience.  Indeed as Benkler points out, the costs are essentially zero – blogging, twittering and free web hosting.

Part three is essentially a coda to the main bulk of the book.  Here Benkler illustrates some of the problems facing social production.  Under this model of “social production” considerable content is created, but the majority is ignored and is unlikely to have lasting influence.  Benkler spends some time discussing those that control access to this social network – control of the infrastructure is often at odds with the open and collaborative nature of this “social production”.  Whilst BT for example provide the infrastructure for telephone calls, legislation prevents them from controlling or policing the numbers that you can dial.  Access to the Internet is not subject to such regulations.  Your ISP can influence who and what you can access.

As a educationalist, the clear message that Benkler  brings to the table is,  that “social networks” are a growing cultural norm that are significantly shaping knowledge and wealth generation.  If we are to equip today’s young people with the tools that they need to contribute to this “social landscape” we need to actively consider the very nature of what and how we teach.