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                                             April      1, 2013
                                             September 11, 2013
                                             September 30, 2013

Holbo's thinks of the
blogosphere as the paradise                              UTOPIAN_SPLIT
lost of the internet:                                    REALLY_NOWHERE

   The technology of the Internet was almost
   entirely created by voluntary spare-time
   efforts, while the content emerged from the
   1nteractions between the early users, mostly
   academics and students. The result was far
   more attractive than the commercial
   alternatives. Nevertheless, by the 1990s,
   the Internet had been opened to commercial
   activity and was generating dreams of
   unbounded profits. The collapse of the
   dotcom boom and the emergence of Wikipedia
   and the blogosphere saw a return to the
   early idealism of the Internet.

   A decade on, though, Facebook, Google and
   Apple are battling for commercial supremacy
   and the free and open Internet is
   disappearing fast. Still the utopian ideal
   persists, even as the Internet has become
   fundamental to the operations of societies
   of all kinds. If the various attempts to
   recreate the walled gardens of the past can
   be defeated, the basic rationale for markets
   as the drivers of innovation, and for
   financial markets as the optimal guides for
   investment will be seriously undermined.

   While the examples are suggestive, the big
   value of this book is embodied in its
   title. We need to reopen the space for
   utopia in our political discourse, and
   Wright has helped to open the way.



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