As I read chapter 3 of Terranova’s book which seemed to be focused on the evil side of the digital market, I found myself reflecting on what Terranova described as the glamorization of the digital economy and those who are enslaved to it. I found it interesting that in both Terranova’s and Lanier’s book they both mention how the emergence of new technologies played a role in the evil that the digital market had impoliticly contained within. The reason for this is because when one thinks of new technology; progress is what is most commonly associated with it however from reading this chapter I began to realize that this progress can be both negative and positive. It then dawned on me that it was the digital market that was responsible for the dotcom crash that Lovnik described in his article. A quote from the article Net consolidation is a natural, accelerated business cycle, on Cnet.com, in my opinioned summed up what Terranova, Lovnik, and Lanier was trying to convey to their readers:
“Changes in technology have threatened to wipe out some of the past year's hottest Internet niches altogether. Business-to-business companies, which connect product makers and their suppliers in super-efficient virtual trading posts, may fade after big companies develop software and expertise to build their own marketplaces.
Likewise, portals may languish as powerful search technology enables people to mine data not only from the Web but also from individual PCs scattered around the world. Napster, which allows people to swap MP3 music files with other users, links roughly 10 million desktop PCs--more computational force than all the servers at Yahoo. File-sharing technology from Freenet and Gnutella present an even greater threat by promoting distribution of intellectual property from movies to spreadsheets.”
In other words, technology has the potential to be the demise of capitalism. To link this with what Terranova talks about, we have become so wrapped up in technological development that we begin to believe in the illusion that technology is what will drive our capital; which in reference to Lovnik’s article, was our demise.
ok--but it goes further, right? the passage you quote is very momentary; Terranova in particular is trying to get at the way the underlying architecture and dynamics of network culture create a new set of economic issues, specifically, those that involve capitalism's capture of free labor.
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