Benkler: “...battle over the institutional ecology of the The Network Economy New role of Culture in Economics Implications for the nature of Markets, Property & Ownership Creativity & Work Commons & Ecology Benkler: “...battle over the institutional ecology of the digital environment”

Redefining Wealth Quantitative: Qualitative: Money & Material Accumulation Qualitative: Well-being Regeneration

McLuhan on Technology Extension of human senses & functions Civilization: extending muscles & bodily functions like heating Electronic technology: extending the human mind & nervous system

Questions Is capitalism an intrinsically material-based and scarcity-based system? How does information redefine property? How do we support or remunerate culture-based production? What is the appropriate balance of commercial & non-market production in the economy? Does ‘globalization’ of information require economic globalization?

Related Questions Who are corporate allies in the quest to free up culture flows? What business models can tolerate non-proprietary information? What are possible negative impacts of mass collaboration? What are the implications for university research & education?

Knowledge-based Development Dematerialization: intrinsic: substituting information for resources Detoxification: ...great potential to tune into benign process & substances. Decentralization: intrinsic part of the network economy

Hardware & Sustainability Electronics: design for obsolescence. The Waste Economy. Design for monopoly: incompatibility E-waste & toxicity Electronics & global labour exploitation. Crucial role of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in reducing & reusing. New possibilities for efficiency in the “World Wide Computer”

Work (Creativity) in the Info Economy a growing proportion of work is involved in the production of “meaning & value” a break from the historic role of worker as cog in the Megamachine the decline of bureaucracy people as means & ends of ‘development’; inversion of ‘investment-consumption’ relationship all-round human development: underlying basis for “creative class” economy: freedom & individuation. N.B.: The overwhelming portion of ecological development—green building, permaculture, renewable energy, eco-industrial networks, reuse-based waste management etc.--all require greater knowledge

Commons in the Info Economy Sharing & conservation: key role of design. Sharing: flip side of the new importance of creativity. Green goods and info goods as “public goods”, not easily served by market exchange. Key struggles today: over control of the Commons—the “2nd Enclosure”

Democracy & the New Commons the Digital Divide Net Neutrality & the Information Highway Struggle over Bandwidth