Who controls the internet?

I've just ordered a book from Amazon on the basis of a post by Nicholas Carr in his blog, Rough Type - post entitled The World is Unflat. The book is: "Who controls the Internet?" by Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu - last one in stock (for the moment) at Amazon UK! The book takes the famous Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, by John Perry Barlow, to task - remember the statement that starts: "Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind," and continues in like theme for around 860 words (I counted them - or, at least, MS Word did)? At one point, Barlow states: "We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity." Goldsmith and Wu use the interesting, and unexpected, example of Ebay to reject this utopian view - Nicholas Carr's synopsis of their argument is beguiling..... .......but I need to check it out for myself! Nicholas's post title reminds me of the quote from a Cisco Senior VP to the effect that, "the world is bumpy", not flat! This book would seem to agree - so worth taking a look at.

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© John Connell
The views expressed in this weblog are entirely my own and are not intended to reflect the views of any other individuals or organizations. All sources will be fully acknowledged.