Over 200 years, industry has mastered iron, fire, power and energy. Today, electronics shape our everyday objects with the widespread integration of chips; from computers and telephones to keys, games and white goods. Data, software and computation structure our behavior and the organization of our lives. Everything is translated into data: the digit is king.
Consisting of three volumes, The Digital Era explores technical, economic and social phenomena that result from the generalization of the Internet. This second volume discusses the impact of digital technology on the evolution of market relations and the media and examines the reasons why such changes put political economy to the test.
Table of Contents:
Note to Reader ix
Preface xi
Introduction xxvii
Jean-Pierre CHAMOUX
Part 1. A Disruptive Economy 1
Introduction to Part 1 3
Jean-Pierre CHAMOUX
Chapter 1. Companies: the Great Transformation 7
Godefroy DANG N’GUYEN
Information: the raw material of digital technology 10
The causes of disruption and their limits 14
The business philosophy of digital technology 15
Moving upmarket and buybacks 16
Concluding reflections 19
Bibliography 21
Chapter 2. Media: Innovation, Self-production, Creativity 23
Jean-Paul SIMON
User-generated content: scaling up 26
Books, authors and communities 30
Cinema and video: creation, streaming and parodies 35
Do it yourself with music: new creativity? 39
Press and information: dialogue with readers or free work? 40
Video games: co-innovators? 43
Conclusion: creativity, but a limited model 45
Bibliography 47
Chapter 3. New Intermediaries: Extra-territorial Platforms 55
Stéphane GRUMBACH
What has changed? 57
Intermediation 58
Platform economics 60
Laws of the digital economy 63
Going towards a new management of resources 69
Building political legitimacy 71
Conclusion 74
Bibliography 75
Part 2. New Perspectives 77
Introduction to Part 2 79
Jean-Pierre CHAMOUX
Chapter 4. The Collaborative Economy: What Are We Talking About? 81
Godefroy DANG N’GUYEN
Numerous examples 83
Commercial versus collaborative peer-to-peer 85
Peer-to-peer trading, the intermediation’s triumph 87
How is collaborative peer-to-peer actually organized? 91
Are commons manageable? 93
Looking at the future of collaborative peer-to-peer 96
Conclusion 97
Bibliography 99
Chapter 5. Towards a Post-industrial iconomy 101
Michel VOLLE
Summary of previous times 103
Real and imagined digital influence 104
Can an intelligence be artificial? 109
Distinguishing power from intelligence 113
In summary: towards the iconomy? 115
Conclusion and recommendations 121
Bibliography 123
Chapter 6. The Chips Industry: Moore and Rock’s Laws 125
Gérard DRÉAN
Some words about technique: where do we stand today? 127
High-tech production 128
An original economy 129
Rock’s law leads to concentration 130
De-integration, specialization and reconfiguration 132
How to stay in the lead pack? 133
Bibliography 135
Chapter 7. Measuring and Compiling Wealth 137
Jean-Pierre CHAMOUX
National accounting and gross revenue 140
Consequences of post-industrial society 145
How can the digital economy be better described? 150
Elements for a summary 154
Bibliography 157
Appendix A. Microelectronics: a typically multinational sector 158
Appendix B. Trade, currencies and digital disruption 161
Conclusion 165
Jean-Pierre CHAMOUX
Appendices 187
Appendix 1 189
Appendix 2 191
List of Authors 193
Index of Names and Brands 195
Index of Notions 199
