Net loss : Internet prophets, private profits, and the costs to community / Nathan Newman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Newman, Nathan, 1966-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Internet industry--Government policy--United States.

Internet industry.

Internet--Government policy--United States.

Internet.

Internet--Government policy.

Economic conditions.

Regional disparities.

Computer industry.

Industrial promotion.

Government policy.

United States.

Industrial promotion--United States--Regional disparities--Case studies.

Computer industry--California--Santa Clara Valley (Santa Clara County).

California--Santa Clara Valley (Santa Clara County).

Computer industry--Developing countries.

International division of labor.

Globalization--Economic aspects--United States.

Globalization.

Globalization--Economic aspects.

United States--Economic conditions--1981---Regional disparities.

Developing countries.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

xxi, 399 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

University Park, Pa. : Pennsylvania State University Press, [2002]

Summary:

How has the Internet been changing our lives, and how did these changes come about? Nathan Newman seeks the answers to these questions by studying the emergence of the Internet economy in Silicon Valley and the ensuing transformation of power relations. Net Loss explains why technological innovation and growth have been accompanied by increasing economic inequality and a sense of political powerlessness among many. More optimistically, Newman sees an emerging countertrend of global use of the Internet by grassroots organizations, such as those in the antiglobalization movements, that may help to transcend this local powerlessness.

Contents:

The Focus of This Book 6

Why Does Inequality Grow in the "New Economy"? 8

Inequality and the Polarization of Regional Development 10

Industrial Districts in the Global Economy 11

Regions in the Web of the Multinational Corporate Enterprise 13

The Elitist Nature of Modern Industrial Districts 15

The Technological Shift of Urban Politics and Social Infrastructure 17

The Core Role of Government in Technological Innovation 20

The Cyberlibertarian Myth and Contesting Government Policy Options 21

Setting Standards and Guiding Internet Growth 24

The Federal Role in the Regional Development of Silicon Valley 25

The New Politics of Regions in the Age of the Internet 29

Federal Regulatory Policy and the Fracturing of Regional Growth Policies 32

Prostrate Local Governments in the Age of Internet Commerce 36

Grassroots Organizing 37

2 How the Federal Government Created the Internet, and How the Internet Is Threatened by the Government's Withdrawal 41

The Origin of the Internet and the Technical Triumph of the Government's Role 46

Investment and Planning 46

Professional Network of Experts 52

Creation of Standards 54

Using Public Space and Volunteer Energy to Create Free, Quickly Shared Innovations 57

Building a Critical Mass of Participants 59

Economic Triumph of the Government and the Pitfalls of Privatization 62

Training 63

The Government Origins of Early Internet Business 64

The Internet as Base for Innovation in the Private Sector 67

The Losses from Privatization 69

Falloff in Basic Research 69

Weakening of Government Support for Standards 71

Why the Feds Withdrew from Standards on the Internet 72

The Threat of Monopoly and Government Reaction 74

The Threat of Monopoly on the Internet: WorldCom 75

The Threat of Monopoly on the Internet: Microsoft 78

Regional Production Districts as an Alternative to Monopoly? 80

3 Federal Spending and the Regionalization of Technology Development 83

Early History of the Valley: Building the Social Capital of Technological Innovation 85

World War II and its Aftermath Fuels the Explosion of Bay Area High-Tech Firms 87

Silicon Comes to the Valley: Semiconductors and Defense-Driven Entrepreneurs 89

Augmentation Versus Automation: The Internet Origins in Silicon Valley 92

Xerox PARC: Making it Personal 96

Did the Government Create the High-Tech Industry? 100

The Regional Economic Effects of High Tech 102

Sun Microsystems and Open Standards: Making Virtue a Commercial Necessity 105

Cisco and the Commerce of InterNetworking 111

Destroying the Village to Save It: Netscape and the Web Standards War 113

Network Computers and Massive Parallel Processing: The Bay Area Challenges the Personal Computer 118

Conclusion: The Engineer's Lament

Technology and its Discontents 124

4 Business Cooperation and the Business Politics of Regions in the Information Age 127

What is a Region in the New Economy? 129

The Politics of Regional Revival: Conceiving a "Smart Valley" 132

Creating a Global Electronic Marketplace 138

The Internet Undermines Local Supply Networks 141

Standards and the Postindustrial Politics of Regions 144

The Role of Consortia in the New Economy 148

Lesson 1 Regional Spin-Offs Trump Corporate Ties 150

Lesson 2 The Need for Social Leveraging of Research into Commerce 151

Lesson 3 Regional and Global Networking Is More Important Than National 153

Lesson 4 Standards, Not Research or Production Relationships, Are the Largest Fruit of Consortia 154

Lesson 5 Watch for the Private Benefits of Those Participating in Consortia 156

The Role of Standards in the New Economy 158

Silicon Valley's Regional Model Versus Its Rivals 161

Silicon Valley as Corporate Center for High Technology 166

Inequality and the Contingent Future for Non-elite Workers 168

Regional Polarization and the Politics of Abandonment 173

5 Banks, Electricity, and Phones: Technology, Regional Decline, and the Marketization of Fixed Capital 179

How Microchips Lead to Megabanks 183

Technological Regionalism and Global Banking 187

Bank of America and the Birth of the American Dream 188

How Banks of America Created the Credit Card

and Saw It Destroy Regional Consumer Credit 191

How Silicon Valley Technology and National Political Muscle Undermined Regional Banking 195

The Collapse of the Regional Subsidy System for Poor and Working Families 200

Electrifying the Internet: The Marketization of Electric Utility Networks 204

The Politics of "Deregulation": Blackouts and the Collapse of Energy Price Equality for Working Families 208

The Loss of Regional Power Planning and Research 211

Rethinking Regulation in the Era of National Electricity Competition 215

Cream-Skimming the Old Bell System, or How Subsidies and Regulation Made Phone "Deregulation" and the Internet Possible 219

Subsidies and Separations: How MCI Cannibalized the Bell System and Sold the Myth of Market Efficiency 226

Technology and Interconnection 230

The Breakup of AT&T 232

Was There an Alternative? Minitel Versus the Internet 234

Expanded Regulation and the Aftermath of the AT&T Breakup 237

The End of Regional Phone Companies 240

The Failure of "Competition": Broadband and the Telecom Meltdown 242

Economic Standards/Technological Standards: The Collapse of Regional Economic Models 245

6 Local Government Up for Bid: Internet Taxes, Economic Development, and Public Information 249

Prop 13 Meets the Internet: How State and Local Government Finances Are Becoming Road Kill on the Information Superhighway 254

How Real Is the Danger of the Internet to Local Taxes? 255

Why States Can't Collect Mail Order Taxes: The Quill Decision 257

Why Saving the Sales Tax Requires More Intrusive Government Regulation 258

Sales Taxes and the Effects on the Poor 261

Technology, Suburbanization, and Prop 13 262

Sales Taxes and the Distortions of Economic Development 267

Wiring Government and Communities 270

Schools and Economic Equity 274

Technology and the Transformation of Civic Government 277

Budgetary Desperation and the Virtual Downsizing of Government 279

Marketing Government to Global Corporations 281

Smart Permits: Blurring the Line Between Government and Business 282

How Online Purchasing is Undermining Local Development 284

Databases and the Privatization of Public Information 287

The Invasion of Privacy and the Threat of Economic Discrimination 289

The Lure and Losses for Governments of Selling Information 290

Public-Private Partnerships and the Privatization of Democracy 293

Prostrate Governments in the Information Age 295

7 Conclusion: The Death of Community Economics, or Think Locally, Act Globally 299

Community Power in the Age of the Internet 303

Getting Online: Nonprofits and the Net 306

Unions and the Electronic Targeting of Business 308

The Internet and the Globalization of Economic-Justice Organizing 311

Seattle and Alternative Globalizations 316

Bay Area Activism Meets Global Politics 318

Workers of the World Unite? 319

Local Resistance versus Global Transcendence 321.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 353-379) and index.

ISBN:

0271022043

0271022051

OCLC:

48375794