Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future - Softcover

Doctorow, Cory

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1892391813 ISBN 13: 9781892391810

Publisher: Tachyon Publications, 2008

Synopsis

Hailed by Bruce Sterling as a “political activist, gizmo freak, junk collector, programmer, entrepreneur, and all-around Renaissance geek,” Cory Doctorow is the Web’s most celebrated high-tech pop-culture maven. Content is the first collection of Doctorow’s infamous articles, essays, and polemics.

Here’s why Microsoft should stop treating its customers as criminals (through relentless digital-rights management); how America chose copyright and Happy Meal toys over jobs; why Facebook is taking a faceplant; how Wikipedia is a poor cousin of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; and, of course, why free e-books kick ass.

Accessible to geeks and noobs (if you’re not sure what that means, it’s you) alike, Content is a must-have compilation from Cory Doctorow, who will be glad to take you along for the ride as he effortlessly surfs the zeitgeist.

About this title

About the Author

Cory Doctorow is a science-fiction novelist, blogger, and technology activist whom Entertainment Weekly called “the William Gibson of his generation.” He is the author of the best-sellers Little Brother, Makers, Pirate Cinema, and Homeland and the co-editor of the popular weblog Boing Boing. Doctorow is a contributor to the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Wired, Locus, and many other newspapers, magazines, and websites. He was the director of European Affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit civil liberties group that defends freedom in technology law, policy standards, and treaties.

Reviews

Doctorow here proves he’s smart, funny, and good at accessibly boiling down issues he’s passionate about. On topics ranging from fanfic (readers’ additions to their favorite authors’ creations, usually online) to the terrible business model Microsoft presents by treating customers like potential thieves from the beginning, Doctorow moves to the forefront of conversations likely to determine how creators and audiences are able to use new technologies. He compares Internet content-management problems to similar technological snafus—such as the transition from live performance to radio, and from manuscript to printed books—and how the established order of the day reacted, demonstrating his grasp of the ways in which history repeats itself and how we can use the lessons of history to cope with further changes in the exchange of information. Doctorow excels in writing short forms, the essay no less than the short story, making this collection a pleasure to read, not to mention thought-provoking. --Regina Schroeder

Edition details

• Publisher: Tachyon Publications
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1892391813
• ISBN 13: 9781892391810
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 213