The Open Revolution: Rewriting the rules of the information age

by Rufus Pollock

Will the digital revolution give us digital dictatorships or digital democracies? Forget everything you think you know about the digital age. It’s not about privacy, surveillance, AI or blockchain—it’s about ownership. Because, in a digital age, who owns information controls the future.

Today, information is everywhere. From your DNA to the latest blockbusters, from lifesaving drugs to the app on your phone, from big data to algorithms. Our entire global economy is built on it and the rules around information affect us all every day.

As information continues to move into the digital domain, it can be copied and distributed with ease, making access and control even more important. But the rules we have made for it, derived from how we manage physical property, are hopelessly maladapted to the digital world.

In this urgent and provocative book, Rufus Pollock shows that we must make a choice between making information Open, shared by all, or making it Closed, exclusively owned and controlled, and how today’s Closed digital economy is the source of problems ranging from growing inequality, to unaffordable medicines, to the power of a handful of tech monopolies to control how we think and vote.

Choosing Open is the path to a more equitable, innovative and profitable future for all.

Genres: Technology, Nonfiction, Politics

126 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 12, 2018

Reviews

[Dosia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book should've been waaay shorter. It's full of repetitions. I didn't like the messy ordering either. It reads as if nobody edited the book as a whole.
I wish there was more on practical aspects of Open activism. The case studies could be shorter and more numerous.
The language was highly accessible I give the author that. I suppose this book _might_ convince someone that patenting systems suuuuck, but hm. Too much convincing, too little substance. And what little substance it gave I wasn't impressed by it. It was all along the lines of "make state pay for renumeration rights pool and free market will take care of the rest" xd
Welp. Will be looking for something else on the topic.

[Emil O. W. Kirkegaard · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brief book advocating openness of information in general, and thus against excessive copyright, patents, and various other evils. It's very light on references and loose with some stories e.g., compare the book's summary vs. Wikipedia of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columba.

[Don Watkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book with many examples of how we are stifling creativity by maintaining our current systems of patents and copyright. The author shows how current protections of intellectual property have stymied research and often cost more than an open system. He makes a good case for new policies more in keeping with our digital age.

[Thad Guidry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have liked to see more practical advice given...but then that would involved a more technical depth that might have been off-putting for the intended audience. The ordering of chapters could even have been completely reversed and framing up first the "let's get busy, here's what we really need to do"... and then following on with the chapters that show "the why", and mentioning more online references that readers could click on in the digital version to expand their knowledge of the technical parts.

[Jeff Tunseth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Makes a pretty good case for transitioning creative rights from our current copyright system, which overwhelmingly puts value in the hands of corporate entities, to a remuneration rights model, which distributes profits more fairly to the creative artist.

If you are a creative, and you depend on copyright for some of your income, it would be worth a read to see what a totally open system might entail, and how it might impact your income.

[Ankit Gupta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting and important concept around data and knowledge sharing in today's world. "Remuneration rights instead of monopoly rights" Quite simple and yet seems very powerful. The author has kept the concepts and language very easy to understand. Nice short read!

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Concise, readable, and very timely.

[Faisal Rasool · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book presents an interesting idea to remover the barriers of proprietary rights and patents on digital information. The book suggest the governments to step in and distribute the money according to the impact any innovation make.

Though there are several questions unanswered in the book but it still posit in interesting idea that need further exploration and research.