I seldom use this blog for book recommendations, but I am making an exception. I encourage you, especially you “digital natives”, to read Walter Isaacson’s “The Innovators“. I have read many, many books about tech innovators, but this book does a particularly good job of pulling together a reasonable history. The Innvoators makes an attempt to capture the big picture. The context provided should be of particular value to those who lack an appreciation of the role of digital technology in our present culture. The book focuses on key individuals and includes just enough personal color to make the book entertaining as well as informative.
Having experienced much of this history as a participant, I recommend this book because it seems to capture a romanticism we have lost. At a time when the technology tools were so primitive, the hopes of those developing and promoting the tools were expansive. The assumed potential of giving individuals the power to build and communicate was intoxicating.
We have pretty much created the potential that was imagined. The hardware, software, and online capabilities are likely more than the pioneers predicted. However, I wonder about the utilization of these possibilities. Would the pioneers have desired NetFlix and Facebook or Comcast and Verizon? Has the opportunity to increase the number of voices being heard been realized? I would suggest that vacuum of opportunities available will be filled by a narrow range or providers unless individuals are willing to invest more of themselves. The tendency for passive consumption in combination with even more powerful tools is a recipe for greater inequality.