The Master Switch
Wu's 2010 book The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires described a long "Cycle" whereby open information systems becoming consolidated and closed over time, reopening only after disruptive innovation. The book shows this cycle develop with the rise of the Bell AT&T telephone monopoly, the founding of the Hollywood entertainment industry, broadcast and cable TV industries, and finally with the internet industry. He looks at the example of Apple Inc., which began as a company dedicated to openness that evolved into a more closed system under the leadership of Steve Jobs, demonstrating that internet industry will follow the historical cycle of the rise of Information Empires (though does discuss Google as an important counterpoint). The book was named one of the best books of 2010 by The New Yorker magazine, Fortune magazine, Amazon.com, The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, and others.
Read more about this topic: Tim Wu
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