E.Con: How the Internet Undermines Democracy

Rating:
Summary: Topical Passionate Plea for Wired Democracy
Review: Despite chapter headings related to Canada, the public sector, and the Internet, this book powerfully debates global issues on personal freedom and intellectual property rights. The Canadian Government is portrayed as weak-willed, and often out-of their depth; and myriad arrogant US lobbying bodies as greedy, manipulative, and protective of global empire-building US corporations rather than the individual.

The books addresses: the Connecting Canadians governmental program; the information industry's invasion of the public library system; the secret agenda and machinations of Canadian Government; the entry of telephone companies into the content business; enclosing the information commons; academics building intellectual property portfolios; IBM colonizing the education sector; the wants of industry; and a manifesto for reclaiming public information.

The Connecting Canadians 6 program goals are: to get all 16,500 schools and 3,400 libraries connected to the Internet; to promote e-commerce; to increase Canadian content; put government information and services on the Internet; to connect municipal governments to local residents and businesses (i.e. Smart Communities); and to connect Canada to the rest of the (developed) World to attract investment. Gutstein asserts that democracy is threatened by the Connecting Canadians knowledge-economy theme, and Bill C-54 the Protection of Personal Information and the Electronic Authentication Act, together aimed at minimizing the cost of privacy violation to potential economic growth of the information industry.

The information industry- computer hardware and software vendors, telephones companies, cable companies, media/TV/newsprint companies- are described as variously hijacking related joint public-private sector initiatives seeking to profit from public-sector investments and information. Publishers as a norm, now break copyright through unauthorized electronic/database re-publishing on the Web of author's work. Land enclosures and powerful landlords in the middles ages actually reduced productivity innovations, and prosperity. Similarly, today Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) landlords (e.g. Bill Gates, Disney) are building up global empires of content, restricting freedom and increasing costs of access to quality information. Powerful US lobbyists have pursued extra IPR protection for US corporations in IT, pharmaceuticals, and chemical processing as US global competitiveness in other manufacturing industries has fallen behind Asia and Europe. Changes relating to IPR in NAFTA and GATT/WTO in just pharmaceuticals, have cost Canadians an extra $400 million per year since 1988. Linux is held up as an example of no-copyright high quality 'bazaar' construction with orders of magnitude greater top level skilled development time, than 'cathedral building' (i.e. fewer high-skilled, more technicians) copyrighted unreliable Microsoft Windows. The current commercialized Canadian university research climate discourages basic breakthrough research, and dissemination of results through papers (non-disclosure agreements). IBM (and other IT vendors) are partnering with colleges and universities to develop educatorless delivery of training content. Through Governmental financial mis-management of interest rates etc.. (and the resultant budget deficit), politicians have made education and research budget cuts. This combined with the encouragement of commercial partnerships, and 'IT as salvation for growth mantra', has resulted in promotion of production-line low-level technical skills training (rather than analytical/higher order/adaptive intelligent/lifelong learning as encouraged by Socrates onwards). An example is Microsoft's outrageous policy of economic dumping of software disguised as generosity to universities- some of which failed liked California Education Technology Initiative, as educators and students alike wanted superior open computing environments rather than Microsoft's offering. Supporting Government and industry, right-wing think-tanks promote perfection of marketplace for resource allocation and economic growth, without researched evidence.

Governmental and industry communication tactics include propaganda ('invented' by US during WW1) or changing opinions of audience to those of originators, possibly against audience's interests; both at grassroots level- as influencing public opinion to support business wants; and at treetops level- reaching the leaders of society to support business wants.

To combat the invasion by corporations, and reduced democratic access to public information, and protection of our own intellectual property Gutstein proposes:

* Community networks of locally -controlled non-profit communication and information

* A progressive global network e.g. include PeaceNet a computer network dedicated to peace, human rights, and social justice

* A public information coalition by women's, social justice, trade unions and organizations

* A charter of human rights- the right to privacy, the right of access to information, the right of access to information services and advice, the right to benefit from intellectual and artistic works, and the right to communicate.

Overall 'e.con' is topical, well argued, structured, and supported, and frightening in it's implications. However, it could be improved by: including a definition of terms and acronyms, adding a few charts or summary bulleted lists, correcting the few typos, and toning down the sometimes extreme unsupported assertions (e.g. against the Canadian government, Bill Gates, US lobbyists, and the information industry). Note- the cover design could expose it to a wider audience (i.e. 'geeks' and MBAs) that might not get what they are expecting- an Internet and society easy-to-read overview book.

Rating:
Summary: Public good or commodity: Information and democracy
Review: Gutstein's book is a must read for information professionals, politicians, and indeed, anyone living in Canada and the US. The premise of the book exposes the reality of corporate interests seizing power and control away from the people. Government deregulation and the uncontrolled world of electronic commerce have fostered the growth of corporate monopolies, which have been swallowing up information resources at staggering rates. Gutstein carefully deconstructs the myths of universal access and electronic commerce to illustrate that corporate giants are being built at the expense of the public good. The numbers of information poor are growing and their rights are being overshadowed by the ambitions of industry. Gutstein's work is thorough and his references are interesting reading on their own. The book is written in a captivating and clear style, all the more reason for every citizen to pick it up. I strongly recommend this book for your local library or personal collection. Technology is not the problem, only how we use it.

Rating:
Summary: Save your money, more politics than Internet
Review: I bought E-con, by Donald Gutstein, to open a door for me to the other side of the Internet. I expected Mr. Gutstein to show me many negative sides of the Internet, so that my current positive view would be a more educated one. I do believe that there are negative sides to the implementation of the Internet, due to the rapid speed we accept this technology, but I simply don't see many.

E-con is negative, but more regarding the current Liberal Government in Canada, than the implementation of the Internet. After reading only a few pages, I lost my trust in his expertise, and identified a bias story. Instead of talking about the entire implementation of the Internet in Canada, Mr. Gutstein talks more about the Government's implementation of the Internet in Canada. Page after page, Mr. Gutstein trashes the government by spreading political propaganda. He either complaints about wrong implementation, bias government officials, promises the cabinet made but never delivered, or he shows his political view in sentences that are strong anti-Government. ("...In my view, Minister Manley has little interest in promoting citizen democracy...")

His commentary isn't a constructive one, more a series of complaints and accusing. Reading E-con, I sometimes got so lost in his complaining, that I sometimes forgot that I was reading a book that was concerned about the Internet, it was like I was reading a political column in a national newspaper.

Although it is good to know that there are people with views like Mr. Gutstein, I believe that this book is not worth the money. Mr. Gutstein should run for the Reform- or the Green Party, as he will probably find more people there that are interested in his material. Especially for a senior lecturer in Communications at one of Canada's best Universities, this was very poor, and is not constructive at all.