ContextOne of the Web’s most celebrated high-tech culture mavens returns with this second collection of essays and polemics. Discussing complex topics in an accessible manner, Cory Doctorow’s visions of a future where artists have full freedom of expression is tempered with his understanding that creators need to benefit from their own creations. From extolling the Etsy makerverse to excoriating Apple for dumbing down technology while creating an information monopoly, each unique piece is brief, witty, and at the cutting edge of tech. Now a stay-at-home dad as well as an international activist, Doctorow writes as eloquently about creating real-time Internet theater with his daughter as he does while lambasting the corporations that want to profit from inherent intellectual freedoms. |
Contents
Foreword by Tim OReilly | 9 |
Why the Computer Is Not a Scary Monster | 11 |
Teen Sex | 15 |
Writing for Young Audiences | 19 |
Teaching Web Literacy | 23 |
Writing in the Age of Distraction | 29 |
Extreme Geek | 34 |
How to Stop Your Inbox Exploding | 42 |
Not Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining | 137 |
Why I Wont Buy an iPad and Think You Shouldnt Either | 141 |
Can You Survive a Benevolent Dictatorship? | 148 |
Curated Computing Is No Substitute for the Personal and Handmade | 154 |
Doctorows First Law | 158 |
Reports of Bloggings Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated | 165 |
Streaming Will Never Stop Downloading | 168 |
Search Is Too Important to Leave to One CompanyEven Google | 174 |
What I Do | 46 |
When Im Dead How Will My Loved Ones Break My Password? | 57 |
Radical Presentism | 62 |
A Cosmopolitan Literature for the Cosmopolitan Web | 67 |
When Love Is Harder to Show Than Hate | 72 |
Think Like a Dandelion | 76 |
Do It Yourself | 81 |
New York Meet Silicon Valley | 91 |
The Price Is Right | 98 |
You Shouldnt Have to Sell Your Soul Just to Download Some Music | 105 |
Its All About the Leverage | 108 |
Proprietary Interest | 115 |
Intellectual Property Is a Silly Euphemism | 119 |
Saying Information Wants to Be Free Does More Harm Than Good | 123 |
Chris Andersons Free Adds Much to The Long Tail but Falls Short | 126 |
Why Economics Condemns 3D to Be No More Than a Blockbuster Gimmick | 134 |
Copyright Enforcers Should Learn Lessons from the War on Spam | 177 |
Three Strikes and Youre Out | 182 |
For Whom the Net Tolls | 185 |
How Do You Know If Copyright Is Working? | 190 |
What Do the Times Paywall Numbers Mean? | 200 |
Persistence Pays Parasites | 206 |
Like Teenagers Computers Are Built to Hook Up | 211 |
A Modest Proposal | 215 |
Personal Data Is as Hot as Nuclear Waste | 220 |
Memento Mori | 224 |
Love the Machine Hate the Factory | 228 |
Untouched by Human Hands | 231 |
Close Enough for Rock n Roll | 234 |
About the Author | 239 |
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