http://www.project-syndicate.org/series/net_world <p><em>How has the Internet changed the nature of government? Does increased connectivity expand individual freedom, or merely expose us to greater official and commercial surveillance? How will intellectual property evolve in an age of costless copying and peer-to-peer file sharing? Can online social networking become anti-social?</em></p> en 2012-02-10T06:00:47+01:00 webmaster@project-syndicate.org Esther Dyson 1994-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 4 hourly http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson41/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson41/English>DYSON: Peeling, Meeting, and Shopping</a> The Russian protests – called “mitings” – are no longer just for old people, radical extremists, or jobless, unskilled feral youth. They are for sociable people who have time and money not just for politics, but also for shopping and, yes, even cosmetic procedures. Esther Dyson 2012-01-26T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson40/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson40/English>DYSON: The Insider Brain Gain</a> Unfortunately, many new technologies and business models make money for investors without creating jobs for workers, causing unemployment and “cognitive surplus” – unused brainpower. But what if all that unused inside information about companies could be monetized? Esther Dyson 2011-12-23T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson38/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson38/English>DYSON: Start-Up Soup</a> Building a company is a lot harder than having a good idea, for it requires attracting people and organizing them to work together. That fact is lost on too many Internet "entrepreneurs" nowadays, who sell themselves to Google, Facebook, and other large firms before they have created real companies. Esther Dyson 2011-11-17T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson37/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson37/English>DYSON: The Steve Jobs Factor</a> In the personal-computing business, Steve Jobs was the only true showman of what is now one of the world’s biggest industries. Others have become “business” leaders, but only Jobs became someone known and admired by millions. Esther Dyson 2011-10-07T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson36/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson36/English>DYSON: Paying (for) Attention</a> It is fashionable nowadays to talk about personal attention as a commodity or even a currency. But attention is neither: it can be bought and sold, to some extent, but it cannot be traded to third parties, and it is not entirely fungible. Esther Dyson 2011-09-20T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson35/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson35/English>DYSON: What’s in a Domain Name?</a> The Internet's governing body, ICANN, is allowing for a dramatic expansion of the namespace with a host of new Top-Level Domains (TLDs), the suffixes that go after the dot, such as .com, .org, and, soon, .anything. That is likely to create money for ICANN’s primary constituents, but only added costs for companies and the public at large. Esther Dyson 2011-08-25T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson34/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson34/English>DYSON: Venture Mentors</a> No one expects venture capitalists to divert their resources to village schools, but perhaps they could focus a little more on training new employees rather than poaching them from the competition at inflated salaries. They could also encourage their employees to donate their time to a local entrepreneurs’ club. Esther Dyson 2011-07-26T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson33/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson33/English>DYSON: Turning Privacy “Threats” Into Opportunities</a> Most companies regard online privacy warily, seeing only expensive disclosure requirements, constraints on their ability to collect information about their customers, and a potential source of legal liabilities. But companies should be turning personal data into an asset by giving it back to their customers in an enhanced form. Esther Dyson 2011-06-22T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson32/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson32/English>DYSON: Illusions of Democracy</a> The Internet has changed how we do business, how we do politics, and even how we change our leaders – at least some of the time. But we should not let that fool us into believing that the online world is even remotely like democracy. Esther Dyson 2011-05-19T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson31/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson31/English>DYSON: Programming Human Perfectibility?</a> Can online job services not only find good employees, but also help people become better employees? No online service can make people perfect, but the right one might enable people to become as perfect as they need to be. Esther Dyson 2011-04-19T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson30/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson30/English>DYSON: Greasing the Brave New Market's Skids</a> With the emergence of online sites like Groupon and its many clones, merchants are likely to face much stiffer competition and erosion of their brands. But, as the market becomes more efficient, that same trend is likely to affect Groupon itself. Esther Dyson 2011-03-22T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson29/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson29/English>DYSON: The Transparent Consumer</a> There’s an old, true joke in the advertising business: half of it is wasted on customers who will never buy, but nobody knows which half. The real number is probably much worse, but that is beginning to change, thanks to a massive increase in the amount of relevant information. Esther Dyson 2011-02-23T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson28/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dyson28/English>DYSON: Sputnik Redux</a> More than 50 years ago, the so-called “Sputnik moment” was a wake-up call that pushed the US to increase investment in technology and science education. Now America has had its "Dragon moment": for the first time, a private company has built and successfully launched a spacecraft into orbit and then recovered it from a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Esther Dyson 2011-01-20T00:00:00+01:00