Networked Information Economy
From Internet: Knowledge and Community
Winner draws upon Yochai Benkler when contemplating "democratic renewal". Winner believes "the clearest, most comprehensive, systematic theory on these matters" is explored in The Wealth of Networks. "Rapidly falling costs of technology, support the rise of a "networked information economy" increasingly characterized by cooperative and coordinate action carried out through radically distributed, non-market mechanisms that do not depend on proprietary strategies." (Winner 5)
This theory relies on the easing of economic barriers to entry. The capital requirements necessary to acquire "computation and communication" devices has lessened thereby putting the "material means of information" in the hands of a significant portion of the population. Benkler is careful to resist fallacious reasoning, post hoc fallacies are common in the arena of attribution. The desire to state "after this, therefore because of this" (causality). While lower cost and increased access to ICT has provided a "large number of people from different geographical locations and different walks of life" the opportunity to participate in networked information technologies, we must be careful not to attribute our current social structure or cultural values to technology.
