Showing results by author "Tim Wu" in All Categories

Could history repeat itself, with one giant entity taking control of American information? Most consider the Internet Age to be a moment of unprecedented freedom in communications and culture. But as Tim Wu shows, each major new medium, from telephone to cable, arrived on a similar wave of idealistic optimism only to become, eventually, the object of industrial consolidation profoundly affecting how Americans communicate.

We live in an age of extreme corporate concentration, in which global industries are controlled by just a few giant firms - big banks, big pharma, and big tech, just to name a few. But concern over what Louis Brandeis called the "curse of bigness" can no longer remain the province of specialist lawyers and economists, for it has spilled over into policy and politics, even threatening democracy itself.

Today's tech platforms are some of history's most advanced tools for extracting as much as possible – data, attention, profit-margins – from everyone else. As they become essential, we are at risk of building an economy that is perpetually unfair for much of humanity. Places and spaces where people can exchange information and goods have been at the heart of every economy and every civilization in history, but today's global platforms - as provided by Amazon, Google, Apple, Meta and others - are different.

En un momento en que el acceso a la información es prácticamente ilimitado, nuestra atención se ha convertido en un producto fundamental para el mercado. ¿Sentimos que desafían nuestra atención? Los negocios de Occidente dependen de ello. En casi cada momento de nuestras vidas, nos enfrentamos a un aluvión de mensajes, incentivos publicitarios, marcas, redes sociales y otros esfuerzos para captar nuestra atención. Pocos momentos o espacios cotidianos permanecen intactos por los "comerciantes de atención".

Hatch Small Business Spotlight is a podcast featuring Hatch Cardholders and their trials, tribulations, and successes of starting and scaling their businesses. Listen as entrepreneurs all over America talk about how they built it, and the lessons they've learned as they scale.

Is the Internet erasing national borders? Who's really in control of what's happening on the Net--Internet engineers, rogue programmers, the United Nations, or powerful countries?In this provocative new book, Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu tell the fascinating story of the Internet's challenge to governmental rule in the 1990s, and the ensuing battles with governments around the world.