Manuel Castells and Pekka Himanen
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199256990
- eISBN:
- 9780191698415
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199256990.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Information Technology
Silicon Valley has been considered as the model that societies must imitate to succeed in the information age. However, recently another alternative has attracted strong international interest: the ...
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Silicon Valley has been considered as the model that societies must imitate to succeed in the information age. However, recently another alternative has attracted strong international interest: the Finnish model. This is equally dynamic in technological and economic terms, but combines the information society with the welfare state. This book looks at what the Finnish model really is. The chapters analyse the factors that have enabled Nokia to become the world's leading telecommunications company, for example, and Linux to become the biggest challenger to Microsoft in the operating systems market. They discuss the development of Nokia and the Finnish innovation model, with important lessons for businesses and national technology policies. However, the Finnish model's most radical and interesting feature is its attempt to combine technological and economic success with social justice and equality. The book shows how Finland has uniquely created a ‘virtuous cycle’ out of the information society and the welfare state: the successful information society makes the continued financing of the welfare state possible and the welfare state generates well-educated people in good shape for the information society's continued success. This model has significant implications for all societies where policy debates about the information society and/or public policy are on the agenda. Ultimately, the Finnish model proves that there is no one model for the information age, but that there is room for different policies and values.Less
Silicon Valley has been considered as the model that societies must imitate to succeed in the information age. However, recently another alternative has attracted strong international interest: the Finnish model. This is equally dynamic in technological and economic terms, but combines the information society with the welfare state. This book looks at what the Finnish model really is. The chapters analyse the factors that have enabled Nokia to become the world's leading telecommunications company, for example, and Linux to become the biggest challenger to Microsoft in the operating systems market. They discuss the development of Nokia and the Finnish innovation model, with important lessons for businesses and national technology policies. However, the Finnish model's most radical and interesting feature is its attempt to combine technological and economic success with social justice and equality. The book shows how Finland has uniquely created a ‘virtuous cycle’ out of the information society and the welfare state: the successful information society makes the continued financing of the welfare state possible and the welfare state generates well-educated people in good shape for the information society's continued success. This model has significant implications for all societies where policy debates about the information society and/or public policy are on the agenda. Ultimately, the Finnish model proves that there is no one model for the information age, but that there is room for different policies and values.
Michael J. North and Charles M. Macal
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195172119
- eISBN:
- 9780199789894
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195172119.003.0008
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Strategy
This chapter considers desktop tools for agent-based modeling and simulation. Two simple but complete examples, Microsoft Excel agent spreadsheet models, are detailed. General tools such as ...
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This chapter considers desktop tools for agent-based modeling and simulation. Two simple but complete examples, Microsoft Excel agent spreadsheet models, are detailed. General tools such as Mathematica and MATLAB and specialized tools such as Repast for Python Scripting (Repast Py), NetLogo, and StarLogo are discussed.Less
This chapter considers desktop tools for agent-based modeling and simulation. Two simple but complete examples, Microsoft Excel agent spreadsheet models, are detailed. General tools such as Mathematica and MATLAB and specialized tools such as Repast for Python Scripting (Repast Py), NetLogo, and StarLogo are discussed.
Peter A. Gloor
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195304121
- eISBN:
- 9780199789771
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195304121.003.0004
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Innovation
This chapter uses examples from history to show how creativity, collaboration, and communication — in networks of people — have advanced civilization through to some of the greatest innovations of ...
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This chapter uses examples from history to show how creativity, collaboration, and communication — in networks of people — have advanced civilization through to some of the greatest innovations of all time. Each example from history illustrates one of the key elements of COIN DNA. The chapter begins with how Homo sapiens eclipsed Neanderthals, and what this tells us about collaboration. Other examples from history include the Fugger banking empire of the German Renaissance period, Marco Polo, and the Rothschilds. The traits that make collaboration on the Internet so powerful, Linux, software patents, and Intel Research are discussed. Three additional examples — a campaign for the Kenyan parliament, Microsoft (both positive and negative aspects), and a “consul” that links entrepreneurs in the United States and Switzerland — expand the discussion of DNA and provide real-world, contemporary examples of how creativity, collaboration, and communication lead to innovation.Less
This chapter uses examples from history to show how creativity, collaboration, and communication — in networks of people — have advanced civilization through to some of the greatest innovations of all time. Each example from history illustrates one of the key elements of COIN DNA. The chapter begins with how Homo sapiens eclipsed Neanderthals, and what this tells us about collaboration. Other examples from history include the Fugger banking empire of the German Renaissance period, Marco Polo, and the Rothschilds. The traits that make collaboration on the Internet so powerful, Linux, software patents, and Intel Research are discussed. Three additional examples — a campaign for the Kenyan parliament, Microsoft (both positive and negative aspects), and a “consul” that links entrepreneurs in the United States and Switzerland — expand the discussion of DNA and provide real-world, contemporary examples of how creativity, collaboration, and communication lead to innovation.
Michael A. Carrier
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195342581
- eISBN:
- 9780199867035
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342581.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Intellectual Property, IT, and Media Law
Intellectual property (IP) maintained its predominance over antitrust in the first decade of the 21st century. This chapter starts by looking at Microsoft, the most prominent antitrust case in recent ...
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Intellectual property (IP) maintained its predominance over antitrust in the first decade of the 21st century. This chapter starts by looking at Microsoft, the most prominent antitrust case in recent years, exploring the IP aspects of the U.S. and European Union cases. It then examines innovation markets, standard-setting organizations, and patent pools before concluding with settlements and other activity in the pharmaceutical industry.Less
Intellectual property (IP) maintained its predominance over antitrust in the first decade of the 21st century. This chapter starts by looking at Microsoft, the most prominent antitrust case in recent years, exploring the IP aspects of the U.S. and European Union cases. It then examines innovation markets, standard-setting organizations, and patent pools before concluding with settlements and other activity in the pharmaceutical industry.
Eleanor M. Fox
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195372823
- eISBN:
- 9780199871773
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195372823.003.0007
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Behavioural Economics
This paper defines various concepts of efficiency and then demonstrates how conservative economic approaches have led to wrong results in several important cases. It asks: What is efficiency? Can ...
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This paper defines various concepts of efficiency and then demonstrates how conservative economic approaches have led to wrong results in several important cases. It asks: What is efficiency? Can antitrust law produce efficiency, and how does it try to do so? It observes that one way antitrust pursues efficiency is by choosing a proxy; notably, either trust in the dynamic of the competition process or trust in (even) the dominant firm. By case examples, it shows the effect of conservative economics in choosing as the proxy trust in the dominant firm. It argues that this phenomenon has produced the Efficiency Paradox: In the name of efficiency, conservative theories of antitrust cut off the most promising paths to efficiency. It is suggested that we can eliminate the Efficiency Paradox by readjusting the pendulum to give more regard to the incentives of mavericks and challengers and less regard to the freedom and autonomy of dominant firms.Less
This paper defines various concepts of efficiency and then demonstrates how conservative economic approaches have led to wrong results in several important cases. It asks: What is efficiency? Can antitrust law produce efficiency, and how does it try to do so? It observes that one way antitrust pursues efficiency is by choosing a proxy; notably, either trust in the dynamic of the competition process or trust in (even) the dominant firm. By case examples, it shows the effect of conservative economics in choosing as the proxy trust in the dominant firm. It argues that this phenomenon has produced the Efficiency Paradox: In the name of efficiency, conservative theories of antitrust cut off the most promising paths to efficiency. It is suggested that we can eliminate the Efficiency Paradox by readjusting the pendulum to give more regard to the incentives of mavericks and challengers and less regard to the freedom and autonomy of dominant firms.
Harvey J. Goldschmid
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195372823
- eISBN:
- 9780199871773
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195372823.003.0010
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Behavioural Economics
This paper observes the absence in recent years of serious enforcement of section 2. With respect to Justice Scalia's extensive comments in the Trinko decision about the value of aggressive behavior ...
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This paper observes the absence in recent years of serious enforcement of section 2. With respect to Justice Scalia's extensive comments in the Trinko decision about the value of aggressive behavior leading to monopoly power, it notes the total absence in the Scalia opinion of any concern with the anticonsumer side of monopoly power—“excessive prices, misallocation of resources, and loss of dynamic efficiency.” That style of passive acceptance follows from one of the basic canons of conservative economic analysis—the theory that if a monopolist tries to take advantage of its market position, new entry and market corrections will automatically appear and make section 2 law enforcement largely unnecessary. The paper advocates a balancing test, citing language in Aspen Ski and Microsoft as a more sensible approach to dominant firm behavior than the rigid passive approach to enforcement, based on general Chicago School scholarship. With respect to recent cases, it notes that a benign attitude toward unreasonable behavior by a monopolist throws into doubt the unanimous opinion of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals finding that Microsoft had violated section 2.Less
This paper observes the absence in recent years of serious enforcement of section 2. With respect to Justice Scalia's extensive comments in the Trinko decision about the value of aggressive behavior leading to monopoly power, it notes the total absence in the Scalia opinion of any concern with the anticonsumer side of monopoly power—“excessive prices, misallocation of resources, and loss of dynamic efficiency.” That style of passive acceptance follows from one of the basic canons of conservative economic analysis—the theory that if a monopolist tries to take advantage of its market position, new entry and market corrections will automatically appear and make section 2 law enforcement largely unnecessary. The paper advocates a balancing test, citing language in Aspen Ski and Microsoft as a more sensible approach to dominant firm behavior than the rigid passive approach to enforcement, based on general Chicago School scholarship. With respect to recent cases, it notes that a benign attitude toward unreasonable behavior by a monopolist throws into doubt the unanimous opinion of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals finding that Microsoft had violated section 2.
Stephen Calkins
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195372823
- eISBN:
- 9780199871773
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195372823.003.0012
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Behavioural Economics
This paper focuses on case law concerning vertical arrangements and exclusive dealing law. It begins by providing an overview of older Supreme Court case law. It then examines appellate court's ...
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This paper focuses on case law concerning vertical arrangements and exclusive dealing law. It begins by providing an overview of older Supreme Court case law. It then examines appellate court's alterations to standards regarding exclusive dealing and vertical arrangements in Microsoft and Dentsply.Less
This paper focuses on case law concerning vertical arrangements and exclusive dealing law. It begins by providing an overview of older Supreme Court case law. It then examines appellate court's alterations to standards regarding exclusive dealing and vertical arrangements in Microsoft and Dentsply.
Simon Domberger
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198774570
- eISBN:
- 9780191596148
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198774575.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Microeconomics
This first section of the book introduces the central issues of contracting out by asking ‘Why make when you can buy?’ This chapter begins by outlining a handful of contracting examples, most of ...
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This first section of the book introduces the central issues of contracting out by asking ‘Why make when you can buy?’ This chapter begins by outlining a handful of contracting examples, most of which have been successful (Microsoft customer support, USA; Mambo Graphics, Australia; Marks & Spencer, UK), but one outright failure is also included (vehicle maintenance in Fairfax County, Virginia, USA). The chapter goes on to suggest what may have been the crucial elements of contracting decisions that resulted in success or failure. This provides an initial glimpse of the themes, the development of which is the main purpose of the book. The chapter also outlines the approach that will be taken in the book, which is not a contracting out manual, but an analytical tool to facilitate strategic thinking about contracting out.Less
This first section of the book introduces the central issues of contracting out by asking ‘Why make when you can buy?’ This chapter begins by outlining a handful of contracting examples, most of which have been successful (Microsoft customer support, USA; Mambo Graphics, Australia; Marks & Spencer, UK), but one outright failure is also included (vehicle maintenance in Fairfax County, Virginia, USA). The chapter goes on to suggest what may have been the crucial elements of contracting decisions that resulted in success or failure. This provides an initial glimpse of the themes, the development of which is the main purpose of the book. The chapter also outlines the approach that will be taken in the book, which is not a contracting out manual, but an analytical tool to facilitate strategic thinking about contracting out.
Joshua A. Braun
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300197501
- eISBN:
- 9780300216240
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300197501.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter focuses on the construction of MSNBC.com's web video player, the primary means by which NBC's cable news and broadcast news programs were made available to users and audiences online. ...
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This chapter focuses on the construction of MSNBC.com's web video player, the primary means by which NBC's cable news and broadcast news programs were made available to users and audiences online. More specifically, it examines the video player's interface and other features in order to elucidate the complex relationships, interests, and motivations devoted to the design of the everyday objects used in online distribution. It also considers the importance of syndication to MSNBC's web presence and how MSNBC.com was able to dramatically expand the reach of its online video by pushing clips to other web properties in Microsoft's online services division, including Bing and MSN.Less
This chapter focuses on the construction of MSNBC.com's web video player, the primary means by which NBC's cable news and broadcast news programs were made available to users and audiences online. More specifically, it examines the video player's interface and other features in order to elucidate the complex relationships, interests, and motivations devoted to the design of the everyday objects used in online distribution. It also considers the importance of syndication to MSNBC's web presence and how MSNBC.com was able to dramatically expand the reach of its online video by pushing clips to other web properties in Microsoft's online services division, including Bing and MSN.
Ron Astor and Rami Benbenishty
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190847067
- eISBN:
- 9780197559840
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190847067.003.0016
- Subject:
- Education, Care and Counseling of Students
Schools maintain a variety of records, but these aren’t necessarily analyzed as a source of data for improving school climate. Records of office referrals, ...
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Schools maintain a variety of records, but these aren’t necessarily analyzed as a source of data for improving school climate. Records of office referrals, suspensions, peer mediation cases, students serving detention, and other incident reports can be examined to learn about disciplinary issues and the school’s response. In addition to getting a sense of how many disciplinary infractions take place in school, it is also valuable to detect changes over time. By examining suspension records over a period of years, school leaders may realize that, along with their efforts to improve school climate and prevent violence, there is also a major increase in suspension rates, an indication that perhaps administrators have used suspension as a major strategy. Given the evidence on the negative outcomes of repeated suspensions, school leaders might reconsider their approach to violence prevention or punishment. Other schools may find that suspensions actually went down when climate improved because fewer students were being disciplined for incidents of violence. While many schools maintain paper records that are difficult to examine and process, others have computerized their reporting system. When computerized databases are available, the potential for educators to learn from the information and make improvements increases dramatically. Careful analysis of existing records can help identify what grade levels of students are most involved in certain behaviors and whether certain students or groups are committing the bulk of infractions. Analyses of these records can also help administrators to understand more about why students are getting in trouble, which students seem to be repeat offenders, and perhaps where and when the incidents are taking place. Absenteeism rates should also be examined in combination with other indicators. Patterns in the data can then be used to see what type of changes might be needed to eliminate the reasons that the students are getting in trouble. These records can also show whether there are certain times during the school year when problems are more likely to occur, such as at the beginning of the year or just before a break.
Less
Schools maintain a variety of records, but these aren’t necessarily analyzed as a source of data for improving school climate. Records of office referrals, suspensions, peer mediation cases, students serving detention, and other incident reports can be examined to learn about disciplinary issues and the school’s response. In addition to getting a sense of how many disciplinary infractions take place in school, it is also valuable to detect changes over time. By examining suspension records over a period of years, school leaders may realize that, along with their efforts to improve school climate and prevent violence, there is also a major increase in suspension rates, an indication that perhaps administrators have used suspension as a major strategy. Given the evidence on the negative outcomes of repeated suspensions, school leaders might reconsider their approach to violence prevention or punishment. Other schools may find that suspensions actually went down when climate improved because fewer students were being disciplined for incidents of violence. While many schools maintain paper records that are difficult to examine and process, others have computerized their reporting system. When computerized databases are available, the potential for educators to learn from the information and make improvements increases dramatically. Careful analysis of existing records can help identify what grade levels of students are most involved in certain behaviors and whether certain students or groups are committing the bulk of infractions. Analyses of these records can also help administrators to understand more about why students are getting in trouble, which students seem to be repeat offenders, and perhaps where and when the incidents are taking place. Absenteeism rates should also be examined in combination with other indicators. Patterns in the data can then be used to see what type of changes might be needed to eliminate the reasons that the students are getting in trouble. These records can also show whether there are certain times during the school year when problems are more likely to occur, such as at the beginning of the year or just before a break.
Gena R. Greher and Jesse M. Heines
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780199826179
- eISBN:
- 9780197563182
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199826179.003.0006
- Subject:
- Computer Science, Audio Processing
When we began to develop our interdisciplinary course in computing+ music, which we call Sound Thinking, we made the deliberate decision that computational thinking ...
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When we began to develop our interdisciplinary course in computing+ music, which we call Sound Thinking, we made the deliberate decision that computational thinking would be the foundation upon which all of our projects would be based. But what exactly do we mean when we refer to “computational thinking” (CT) and what might it look like in practice? Jeannette Wing coined this term in 2006 to characterize analytical thought processes that are subject-matter independent. She wrote: . . . Computational thinking involves solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior, by drawing on the concepts fundamental to computer science. Computational thinking includes a range of mental tools that reflect the breadth of the field of computer science. While the “mental tools” of which Wing speaks may originate in—or at least be most visible in—computer science, she stresses that “computational thinking is a fundamental skill for everyone, not just for computer scientists.” We wholeheartedly agree. Too often we see students attack problems in a hodgepodge manner, devoid of planning, hoping that trial and error will eventually lead them to a solution. When they are lucky enough to arrive at a desired result through random processes, students too often fail to understand or appreciate why a particular approach worked. This makes it impossible for them to generalize the approach and apply it to related problems. Analytical skills are the essence of computational thinking. What’s more, we feel that these skills are just as important to music and other arts majors as they are to computer science majors. Both groups are hampered by habit, which limits their abilities to imagine alternative possibilities. By getting students from disparate disciplines to work together, or at least by getting students to look at things from the perspective of someone whose discipline is different from their own, we aim to break the bonds of those habits and help students learn to think analytically.
Less
When we began to develop our interdisciplinary course in computing+ music, which we call Sound Thinking, we made the deliberate decision that computational thinking would be the foundation upon which all of our projects would be based. But what exactly do we mean when we refer to “computational thinking” (CT) and what might it look like in practice? Jeannette Wing coined this term in 2006 to characterize analytical thought processes that are subject-matter independent. She wrote: . . . Computational thinking involves solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior, by drawing on the concepts fundamental to computer science. Computational thinking includes a range of mental tools that reflect the breadth of the field of computer science. While the “mental tools” of which Wing speaks may originate in—or at least be most visible in—computer science, she stresses that “computational thinking is a fundamental skill for everyone, not just for computer scientists.” We wholeheartedly agree. Too often we see students attack problems in a hodgepodge manner, devoid of planning, hoping that trial and error will eventually lead them to a solution. When they are lucky enough to arrive at a desired result through random processes, students too often fail to understand or appreciate why a particular approach worked. This makes it impossible for them to generalize the approach and apply it to related problems. Analytical skills are the essence of computational thinking. What’s more, we feel that these skills are just as important to music and other arts majors as they are to computer science majors. Both groups are hampered by habit, which limits their abilities to imagine alternative possibilities. By getting students from disparate disciplines to work together, or at least by getting students to look at things from the perspective of someone whose discipline is different from their own, we aim to break the bonds of those habits and help students learn to think analytically.
Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195152661
- eISBN:
- 9780197561904
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195152661.003.0012
- Subject:
- Computer Science, History of Computer Science
Some people change history by accident, and Niklas Zennstrom counts as one of them. This soft-spoken and still largely unknown Swede, described by the ...
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Some people change history by accident, and Niklas Zennstrom counts as one of them. This soft-spoken and still largely unknown Swede, described by the Washington Post as a “younger, hipper version of Bill Gates,” started two small companies in the early 2000s that have already done much to change how people exchange information in the twenty-first century. His first company created a filesharing software application called “Kazaa” that was destined to become the most downloaded program in history. Millions of people used Kazaa to exchange billions of songs in open defiance of national copyright laws. This chapter chronicles the filesharing movement, in which Zennstrom and Kazaa played a big role. At its height this movement led many to believe that filesharing might upend the central role of national copyright law in the distribution of information. With the benefit of hindsight, we can now see that this was not to be. And so in part, this chapter is a sequel to chapters 5 and 6, showing again the importance of law and national government, even for filesharing—a technology designed to be impossible to control. This chapter also introduces a crucial new theme: the effect of technological change on the market and the legal system. Filesharing introduced a cheaper method of distributing music that sparked massive changes in the economics of music distribution and the behavior of consumers. These changes were a jolt to the copyright law system that seemed to many to render it irrelevant. What appeared a threat to copyright law, however, turned out simply to be the law’s hesitation and adjustment in the face of a massive battle between the recording industry, technological upstarts, and music consumers over the spoils of a better music distribution system made possible by the Internet. As the 1990s ended, the music recording industry’s mood was optimistic. A new and sturdy technology, the compact disc, anchored the best decade of sales ever. A handful of major labels, a textbook oligopoly, exercised near total control over the distribution of music. And while the industry faced considerable expenses in the development and marketing of new artists, existing music cost little to manufacture and could be sold for up to $20 per album. The recording industry was rich, powerful, well-connected in Congress, and uninterested in changing a successful business model.
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Some people change history by accident, and Niklas Zennstrom counts as one of them. This soft-spoken and still largely unknown Swede, described by the Washington Post as a “younger, hipper version of Bill Gates,” started two small companies in the early 2000s that have already done much to change how people exchange information in the twenty-first century. His first company created a filesharing software application called “Kazaa” that was destined to become the most downloaded program in history. Millions of people used Kazaa to exchange billions of songs in open defiance of national copyright laws. This chapter chronicles the filesharing movement, in which Zennstrom and Kazaa played a big role. At its height this movement led many to believe that filesharing might upend the central role of national copyright law in the distribution of information. With the benefit of hindsight, we can now see that this was not to be. And so in part, this chapter is a sequel to chapters 5 and 6, showing again the importance of law and national government, even for filesharing—a technology designed to be impossible to control. This chapter also introduces a crucial new theme: the effect of technological change on the market and the legal system. Filesharing introduced a cheaper method of distributing music that sparked massive changes in the economics of music distribution and the behavior of consumers. These changes were a jolt to the copyright law system that seemed to many to render it irrelevant. What appeared a threat to copyright law, however, turned out simply to be the law’s hesitation and adjustment in the face of a massive battle between the recording industry, technological upstarts, and music consumers over the spoils of a better music distribution system made possible by the Internet. As the 1990s ended, the music recording industry’s mood was optimistic. A new and sturdy technology, the compact disc, anchored the best decade of sales ever. A handful of major labels, a textbook oligopoly, exercised near total control over the distribution of music. And while the industry faced considerable expenses in the development and marketing of new artists, existing music cost little to manufacture and could be sold for up to $20 per album. The recording industry was rich, powerful, well-connected in Congress, and uninterested in changing a successful business model.
Peter Manning
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199746392
- eISBN:
- 9780199332496
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199746392.003.0016
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition, Popular
The early years of the microcomputer were characterized by a proliferation of machine architectures, each associated with a unique set of operating characteristics. As a result, many models enjoyed a ...
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The early years of the microcomputer were characterized by a proliferation of machine architectures, each associated with a unique set of operating characteristics. As a result, many models enjoyed a relatively short production life, which in turn militated against the development of suitably robust and well-crafted software tools, especially in more specialist areas of activity such as music. By the dawn of the MIDI era, however, the design and development of these prototypes for the personal computer was proceeding on a more rational basis. Manufacturers had started to concentrate on generic approaches to the production of new models, in many instances designed specifically to accommodate applications developed for earlier technologies. These in turn facilitated early versions of the two architectures that have dominated subsequent developments to the present day, one pioneered by Apple, the other by Microsoft. Such environments were soon to prove increasingly attractive to musical applications, not least those that used the personal computer to control the functional characteristics of MIDI-based hardware. These included the control of performance characteristics using sequencing software, and also the editing of sound samples.Less
The early years of the microcomputer were characterized by a proliferation of machine architectures, each associated with a unique set of operating characteristics. As a result, many models enjoyed a relatively short production life, which in turn militated against the development of suitably robust and well-crafted software tools, especially in more specialist areas of activity such as music. By the dawn of the MIDI era, however, the design and development of these prototypes for the personal computer was proceeding on a more rational basis. Manufacturers had started to concentrate on generic approaches to the production of new models, in many instances designed specifically to accommodate applications developed for earlier technologies. These in turn facilitated early versions of the two architectures that have dominated subsequent developments to the present day, one pioneered by Apple, the other by Microsoft. Such environments were soon to prove increasingly attractive to musical applications, not least those that used the personal computer to control the functional characteristics of MIDI-based hardware. These included the control of performance characteristics using sequencing software, and also the editing of sound samples.
Michael Heim
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195104264
- eISBN:
- 9780197561690
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195104264.003.0012
- Subject:
- Computer Science, Virtual Reality
Something....-What? —A phenomenon. Something intrusive, something vague but insistent, pushing itself upon us. — Something outside? From afar? Something alien? — ...
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Something....-What? —A phenomenon. Something intrusive, something vague but insistent, pushing itself upon us. — Something outside? From afar? Something alien? — Something descending in the night, standing in the shadows at the foot of the bed. —An illusion? Hallucination maybe? A quirky twist of imagination? — No, definitely a presence, something that might be a someone, a someone with wires and electric sensors, probing, penetrating, exploring private parts. Something lifting us off the familiar face of the planet we thought we knew so well, beaming us outside the orbit of our comfortable homes. Definitely something indefinite . . . or someone. —We hear about them only from others who speak about sightings of unidentified objects in the sky, because we do not allow ourselves to be counted among the unstable few who acknowledge the possibility of something outside the circle of our sciences. Those unstable few accept belief in something standing in the shadows at the door. We listen closely to those speaking about incidents of the phenomenon. We do not look. — Something IS out there. We’ve seen and heard it in the night. It’s contacting us. The phenomenon certainly exists in late-night chat like the above. It exists as metaphysical hearsay, as an internal dialogue between what we believe and what we think we are willing to believe. Popular descriptions of “the incident” waver between child-like awe and tongue-in-cheek tabloid humor. Here is where our knowledge, as a culturally defined certainty, becomes most vulnerable. Here we discover the soft edges of knowledge as an established and culturally underwritten form of belief. What a thrill to feel the tug of war on the thin thread of shared belief! A blend of religious archetypes and science-fiction imagery supplies the words for those who tell about the incident. The stories often float up through hypnosis or “recovered memory” hypnotherapy, as in the famous case of Betty and Barney Hill who experienced abduction one September night in New Hampshire in 1961. Researchers have recently plotted consistently recurring patterns in thousands of stories, and the mythic dimension of the story line has not been lost on Hollywood.
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Something....-What? —A phenomenon. Something intrusive, something vague but insistent, pushing itself upon us. — Something outside? From afar? Something alien? — Something descending in the night, standing in the shadows at the foot of the bed. —An illusion? Hallucination maybe? A quirky twist of imagination? — No, definitely a presence, something that might be a someone, a someone with wires and electric sensors, probing, penetrating, exploring private parts. Something lifting us off the familiar face of the planet we thought we knew so well, beaming us outside the orbit of our comfortable homes. Definitely something indefinite . . . or someone. —We hear about them only from others who speak about sightings of unidentified objects in the sky, because we do not allow ourselves to be counted among the unstable few who acknowledge the possibility of something outside the circle of our sciences. Those unstable few accept belief in something standing in the shadows at the door. We listen closely to those speaking about incidents of the phenomenon. We do not look. — Something IS out there. We’ve seen and heard it in the night. It’s contacting us. The phenomenon certainly exists in late-night chat like the above. It exists as metaphysical hearsay, as an internal dialogue between what we believe and what we think we are willing to believe. Popular descriptions of “the incident” waver between child-like awe and tongue-in-cheek tabloid humor. Here is where our knowledge, as a culturally defined certainty, becomes most vulnerable. Here we discover the soft edges of knowledge as an established and culturally underwritten form of belief. What a thrill to feel the tug of war on the thin thread of shared belief! A blend of religious archetypes and science-fiction imagery supplies the words for those who tell about the incident. The stories often float up through hypnosis or “recovered memory” hypnotherapy, as in the famous case of Betty and Barney Hill who experienced abduction one September night in New Hampshire in 1961. Researchers have recently plotted consistently recurring patterns in thousands of stories, and the mythic dimension of the story line has not been lost on Hollywood.
Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195152661
- eISBN:
- 9780197561904
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195152661.003.0009
- Subject:
- Computer Science, History of Computer Science
A visitor to the dell.com web page finds a message prominently displayed in the upper left-hand corner: “Choose a Country/Region.” The cisco.com page ...
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A visitor to the dell.com web page finds a message prominently displayed in the upper left-hand corner: “Choose a Country/Region.” The cisco.com page likewise asks users to “Select a Location.” Yahoo’s web page has a “Yahoo International” link that connects to a global map with over twenty-five hyperlinks to specialized web pages tied to particular countries (like Denmark, Korea, and Argentina) and regions (like Asia). Everywhere on the web, sites ask viewers to identify their geographical location. Geographical links are puzzling for those who think of the Net as a borderless medium that renders place irrelevant. But the puzzle disappears when we see that, globalization and the supposed death of distance notwithstanding, national borders reflect real and important differences among peoples in different places. As this chapter shows, geographical borders first emerged on the Internet not as a result of fiats by national governments, but rather organically, from below, because Internet users around the globe demanded different Internet experiences that corresponded to geography. Later chapters will show how governments strengthened borders on the Net by employing powerful “top-down” techniques to control unwanted Internet communications from abroad. But in order to understand fully why the Internet is becoming bordered, we must first understand the many ways that private actors are shaping the Internet to accommodate differences among nations and regions, and why the Internet is a more effective and useful communication tool as a result. The most immediate and important difference reflected by borders is language. People in Brazil, Korea, and France don’t want English language versions of Microsoft products. They want a version they can read and understand. Microsoft learned this lesson when it tried to distribute an English version of Windows operating system in tiny Iceland. Redmond executives thought the market of 500,000 worldwide Icelandic speakers did not justify translation costs and figured the English version would suffice because most Icelanders spoke English as a second language. But Icelanders felt that Microsoft’s plan would imperil their language, which has retained basically the same grammar, spelling, and vocabulary for more than a thousand years.
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A visitor to the dell.com web page finds a message prominently displayed in the upper left-hand corner: “Choose a Country/Region.” The cisco.com page likewise asks users to “Select a Location.” Yahoo’s web page has a “Yahoo International” link that connects to a global map with over twenty-five hyperlinks to specialized web pages tied to particular countries (like Denmark, Korea, and Argentina) and regions (like Asia). Everywhere on the web, sites ask viewers to identify their geographical location. Geographical links are puzzling for those who think of the Net as a borderless medium that renders place irrelevant. But the puzzle disappears when we see that, globalization and the supposed death of distance notwithstanding, national borders reflect real and important differences among peoples in different places. As this chapter shows, geographical borders first emerged on the Internet not as a result of fiats by national governments, but rather organically, from below, because Internet users around the globe demanded different Internet experiences that corresponded to geography. Later chapters will show how governments strengthened borders on the Net by employing powerful “top-down” techniques to control unwanted Internet communications from abroad. But in order to understand fully why the Internet is becoming bordered, we must first understand the many ways that private actors are shaping the Internet to accommodate differences among nations and regions, and why the Internet is a more effective and useful communication tool as a result. The most immediate and important difference reflected by borders is language. People in Brazil, Korea, and France don’t want English language versions of Microsoft products. They want a version they can read and understand. Microsoft learned this lesson when it tried to distribute an English version of Windows operating system in tiny Iceland. Redmond executives thought the market of 500,000 worldwide Icelandic speakers did not justify translation costs and figured the English version would suffice because most Icelanders spoke English as a second language. But Icelanders felt that Microsoft’s plan would imperil their language, which has retained basically the same grammar, spelling, and vocabulary for more than a thousand years.
Michael Heim
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195104264
- eISBN:
- 9780197561690
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195104264.003.0007
- Subject:
- Computer Science, Virtual Reality
His words hovered in my mind for months, then boomeranged with painful irony. What he said over lunch held the future in a horrible way that neither of us could grasp ...
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His words hovered in my mind for months, then boomeranged with painful irony. What he said over lunch held the future in a horrible way that neither of us could grasp at the time. His words foreshadowed a tragedy that would injure him and implicate our schizophrenic culture. At the time, the prophetic words were innocent of the shadowy terrorist the FBI calls “the Unabomber.” Lunch was at a Sheraton Hotel on the second day of a national conference on virtual reality held in Washington, D.C., December 1-2, 1992. I had organized the conference for the Education Foundation of the Data Processing Management Association, and Professor David Gelernter was the keynote speaker. I had been looking forward to talking with him, and lunch seemed a perfect opportunity. The Yale computer scientist had invented the Linda programming language and had also written eloquently about the human side of computing. I knew him not only as a writer but also as a friendly reader of my books. I looked forward to an exchange of ideas. Our conversation moved from pleasantries to questions about how to humanize the computer. Several of David Gelernter’s sentences imprinted themselves on my memory and later played back to me in ways I could not—would not—have imagined: “We are on a social collision course,” he warned. “One portion of our population is building computer systems—the software cathedrals of this era — while another portion grows increasingly alienated from computers. This situation holds the greatest danger of a cultural collision.” Here was a premonition about the cyberspace backlash. Seven months later, on June 24, 1993, David Gelernter opened a mail package on the fifth floor of the Watson computer science building at Yale, and the package blew up in his face. The office was in flames, and David barely escaped. He staggered to the campus clinic, arriving just in time to save his life. The permanent injuries he suffered from the mail bomb included a partially blinded right eye, damage in one ear, and a maimed right hand.
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His words hovered in my mind for months, then boomeranged with painful irony. What he said over lunch held the future in a horrible way that neither of us could grasp at the time. His words foreshadowed a tragedy that would injure him and implicate our schizophrenic culture. At the time, the prophetic words were innocent of the shadowy terrorist the FBI calls “the Unabomber.” Lunch was at a Sheraton Hotel on the second day of a national conference on virtual reality held in Washington, D.C., December 1-2, 1992. I had organized the conference for the Education Foundation of the Data Processing Management Association, and Professor David Gelernter was the keynote speaker. I had been looking forward to talking with him, and lunch seemed a perfect opportunity. The Yale computer scientist had invented the Linda programming language and had also written eloquently about the human side of computing. I knew him not only as a writer but also as a friendly reader of my books. I looked forward to an exchange of ideas. Our conversation moved from pleasantries to questions about how to humanize the computer. Several of David Gelernter’s sentences imprinted themselves on my memory and later played back to me in ways I could not—would not—have imagined: “We are on a social collision course,” he warned. “One portion of our population is building computer systems—the software cathedrals of this era — while another portion grows increasingly alienated from computers. This situation holds the greatest danger of a cultural collision.” Here was a premonition about the cyberspace backlash. Seven months later, on June 24, 1993, David Gelernter opened a mail package on the fifth floor of the Watson computer science building at Yale, and the package blew up in his face. The office was in flames, and David barely escaped. He staggered to the campus clinic, arriving just in time to save his life. The permanent injuries he suffered from the mail bomb included a partially blinded right eye, damage in one ear, and a maimed right hand.
Patrick Crogan
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816653348
- eISBN:
- 9781452946146
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816653348.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter presents a comparative analysis of two products of the military-entertainment complex—Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2: WWII Pacific Theater (2000) and the film Pearl Harbor ...
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This chapter presents a comparative analysis of two products of the military-entertainment complex—Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2: WWII Pacific Theater (2000) and the film Pearl Harbor (2000)—that remediate narrative and interactive forms of temporal engagement in different but symptomatically related ways. While Pearl Harbor does not literally engage the viewer interactively in real time, it stimulates aspects of a realtime aesthetic. Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2, a game that uses the Microsoft Flight Simulator game engine, simulates narrativity through its historical realtime recreation of the air war in the Pacific during World War II. They are both exemplary instances of the reorientation to historical temporality underway in and through the military-entertainment complex.Less
This chapter presents a comparative analysis of two products of the military-entertainment complex—Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2: WWII Pacific Theater (2000) and the film Pearl Harbor (2000)—that remediate narrative and interactive forms of temporal engagement in different but symptomatically related ways. While Pearl Harbor does not literally engage the viewer interactively in real time, it stimulates aspects of a realtime aesthetic. Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2, a game that uses the Microsoft Flight Simulator game engine, simulates narrativity through its historical realtime recreation of the air war in the Pacific during World War II. They are both exemplary instances of the reorientation to historical temporality underway in and through the military-entertainment complex.
August Turak
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231160629
- eISBN:
- 9780231535229
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231160629.003.0004
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
This chapter describes a transformational model of human motivation that defines the “what” of service and selflessness and shows why this management philosophy is critical to the business success of ...
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This chapter describes a transformational model of human motivation that defines the “what” of service and selflessness and shows why this management philosophy is critical to the business success of the monastic tradition. More specifically, it examines the goat-rodeo mentality that has been fueling Microsoft's explosive growth. The real secret to Microsoft's success was that Bill Gates and his executive team managed to connect their corporate mission to these transformational experiences: a transformational organization. This chapter considers two kinds of transformational organizations and how the goat-rodeos idea contributed to their success. In contrast to unconsciously transformational corporate success stories, which are typically short lived, consciously transformational organizations display an amazing ability to thrive over long periods of time. Despite obvious differences relative to their specific missions, all consciously transformational organizations have three things in common: a high, overarching mission worthy of being selflessly served; personal transformation as part of the mission; and a methodology for bringing transformation about.Less
This chapter describes a transformational model of human motivation that defines the “what” of service and selflessness and shows why this management philosophy is critical to the business success of the monastic tradition. More specifically, it examines the goat-rodeo mentality that has been fueling Microsoft's explosive growth. The real secret to Microsoft's success was that Bill Gates and his executive team managed to connect their corporate mission to these transformational experiences: a transformational organization. This chapter considers two kinds of transformational organizations and how the goat-rodeos idea contributed to their success. In contrast to unconsciously transformational corporate success stories, which are typically short lived, consciously transformational organizations display an amazing ability to thrive over long periods of time. Despite obvious differences relative to their specific missions, all consciously transformational organizations have three things in common: a high, overarching mission worthy of being selflessly served; personal transformation as part of the mission; and a methodology for bringing transformation about.
Sharon Zukin
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- March 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190083830
- eISBN:
- 9780190083861
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190083830.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology, Culture
New York Tech Meetup emerged in the early 2000s as a formative organization in the city’s innovation ecosystem. Every month, hundreds of mostly young people and a few potential investors come to see ...
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New York Tech Meetup emerged in the early 2000s as a formative organization in the city’s innovation ecosystem. Every month, hundreds of mostly young people and a few potential investors come to see computer coders and startup founders “demo” new apps and platforms they have created. In the 2010s, the tech meetup was joined by other organizations that also claimed to mobilize and speak for New York’s tech “community,” notably, the nonprofit organization Civic Hall, specializing in “civic tech,” and Tech:NYC, a nonprofit industry association. The chapter uses ethnographic observations and interviews with leaders of these organizations to document their efforts to “leverage” the membership for a role in tech policymaking in the city.Less
New York Tech Meetup emerged in the early 2000s as a formative organization in the city’s innovation ecosystem. Every month, hundreds of mostly young people and a few potential investors come to see computer coders and startup founders “demo” new apps and platforms they have created. In the 2010s, the tech meetup was joined by other organizations that also claimed to mobilize and speak for New York’s tech “community,” notably, the nonprofit organization Civic Hall, specializing in “civic tech,” and Tech:NYC, a nonprofit industry association. The chapter uses ethnographic observations and interviews with leaders of these organizations to document their efforts to “leverage” the membership for a role in tech policymaking in the city.
William H. Page and John E. Lopatka
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226644639
- eISBN:
- 9780226644653
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226644653.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Company and Commercial Law
In 1998, the United States Department of Justice and state antitrust agencies charged that Microsoft was monopolizing the market for personal computer operating systems. More than ten years later, ...
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In 1998, the United States Department of Justice and state antitrust agencies charged that Microsoft was monopolizing the market for personal computer operating systems. More than ten years later, the case is still the defining antitrust litigation of our era. This book contributes to the debate over the future of antitrust policy by examining the implications of the litigation from the perspective of consumer welfare. The authors trace the development of the case from its conceptual origins through the trial and the key decisions on both liability and remedies. They argue that, at critical points, the legal system failed consumers by overrating government's ability to influence outcomes in a dynamic market.Less
In 1998, the United States Department of Justice and state antitrust agencies charged that Microsoft was monopolizing the market for personal computer operating systems. More than ten years later, the case is still the defining antitrust litigation of our era. This book contributes to the debate over the future of antitrust policy by examining the implications of the litigation from the perspective of consumer welfare. The authors trace the development of the case from its conceptual origins through the trial and the key decisions on both liability and remedies. They argue that, at critical points, the legal system failed consumers by overrating government's ability to influence outcomes in a dynamic market.