The Master Switch

The Rise and Fall of Information Empires

By: Tim Wu

Narrated by: Marc Vietor

A secret history of the industrial wars behind the rise and fall of the 20th century's great information empires - Hollywood, the broadcast networks, and AT&T - asking one big question: Could history repeat itself, with one giant entity taking control of American information?

Most consider the Internet Age to be a moment of unprecedented freedom in communications and culture. But as Tim Wu shows, each major new medium, from telephone to cable, arrived on a similar wave of idealistic optimism only to become, eventually, the object of industrial consolidation profoundly affecting how Americans communicate. Every once-free and open technology was in time centralized and closed, a huge corporate power taking control of the master switch. Today, as a similar struggle looms over the Internet, increasingly the pipeline of all other media, the stakes have never been higher. To be decided: who gets heard, and what kind of country we live in. Part industrial exposé, part meditation on the nature of freedom of expression, part battle cry to save the Internet's best features, The Master Switch brings to light a crucial drama rife with indelible characters and stories, heretofore played out over decades in the shadows of our national life.

©2010 Tim Wu (P)2010 Audible, Inc

Critic reviews

“Wu’s engaging narrative and remarkable historical detail make this a compelling and galvanizing cry for sanity - and necessary deregulation - in the information age.” ( Publishers Weekly)

“This is an essential look at the directions that personal computing could be headed depending on which policies and worldviews come to dominate control over the Internet.” ( Booklist)

"There’s a sharp insight and a surprising fact on nearly every page of Wu’s masterful survey. Above all, Wu shows that each new communications technology spawns the same old quest for power." ( The Boston Globe)

"A brilliant exploration of the oscillations of communications technologies between 'open' and 'closed' from the early days of the telephone up through Hollywood and broadcast television up to the Internet era." (Forbes.com)

"My pick for economics book of the year." (Ezra Klein, The Washington Post)

Informative Story!

I never knew (but honestly not surprised) by all the events discussed in the book. This book takes you beyond the history books into what really happened as our culture entered the information age.

This was one of the best books ever.

Thought it would be boring and the cover is sort of ugly. But if you want scholarly insight into why people think their telecom/cable service is such a hot mess and if you wanna peek into all the power plays behind the scenes in the telecom/tech world you gotta listen to this book.

Continue Growing.

Very well done now anyone we need to get together with many writers or historians & place those findings from history with many people on topics from any period of time in every book.
Evolution where one goes we all go.
Overcome , resistance & victory.
Peace , love & joy.

Must listen for anyone in technology or media

Where does The Master Switch rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Master Switch is a modern history book about the rise and fall of information and the technology (and people) that facilitated it. As a technologist I find it to be a required listen for anyone interested in technology and media with the hope that there are many lessons to learn.

What did you like best about this story?

How Tim Wu takes the listener on a tour of the history of information technology and the communication empires that it spawned such as telephone, radio, television and now those that evolved from the internet and mobile spaces.

Which character – as performed by Marc Vietor – was your favorite?

The depiction of Edison and David Sarnoff were quite interesting. However, it wasn't specifically due to Marc's narration.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

The book is too dense to listen in one sitting. I found that I would listen to passages and then reflect on them later. There were a few chapters that I listened to more than once.

Good history, good current state

Compelling history of information companies and what the current state looks like and what will happen in the future based on history. He covers the history so well I'll never listen to a another history on this topic again.

Fantastic book, very well presented

Highly recommend for people with an interest in media history and the convergence of media, information, technology and the Internet. Much of the history covered isn't the boilerplate facts and figures many recite, but rather a detailed look at why things evolved the way they did, which many likely don't know. I learned more than I expected, which is great. And it raises issues about the the future of the Internet that need more awareness. I expected this book to possibly go off the rails getting hung up in net neutrality dogma, but it was anything but that. Tim Wu does a great job of not only being pragmatic but doing it in such a way where you realize just how much push and pull has happened to get us where we are now and what's at stake moving forward.

INTERNET

“The Master Switch” will flip some listeners off and some on.

Tim Wu writes about man’s drive to acquire a master switch that controls how the public receives information. The first section of the book sets a table for understanding 21st century communication technology. Wu doggedly recounts a history of the communication industry. It may turn some listeners off but stick with it, Wu has something to say.

Ignorance of communication technology is everywhere. Consumers are more interested in what they can get than what they can change. Consumers have no interest in understanding the ones and zeros of programming. The general public would rather let someone else make product decisions and vote with their pocketbook when they are dissatisfied. The public does understand technology and could care less. “Show me the product and what it can do” and “Show me the money” are mankind’s arbiters of who gets the “Master Switch”.

Wu opens one’s mind but fails to come up with a plan that will change the internet’s trajectory.

Very interesting history, biased conclusions

I've never heard of Tim Wu before reading this, but he really knows his stuff as far as media/technology history goes. The best parts of this book were examining this history of prior "cutting edge" media (Telephony, Radio, Television) through the eyes of what we'd now call the "Open Source" vs. "Closed System" dynamic. Fascinating and informative. I found I couldn't put it down.

HOWEVER -- the last hour turns into a very biased analysis of what's going on today.

I take his larger point -- that the Internet's open-ended structure which we tend to think of as permanent is not, in fact, unassailable. I think it's a well-supported point and he makes some interesting conjectures as to how that structure could change.

But I feel he makes a serious error in his analysis.

Specifically, he reduces "fate of the communications future" to a simple dynamic: Apple vs Google, with his preference clearly falling on Team Google. I think this a fairly short-sighted, narrow interpretation. Unlike the Bell of RCA companies of yesteryear, *neither* company owns anything that could not be replaced through a process of consumer demand. (Neither owns the "wires") Apple is not the "too big to fail" monopoly that Bell was -- it just plays nicely with the companies that are. So while these two companies clearly have different ideologies vis-a-vis the internet, BOTH could be undone by a vertically integrated powerhouse!

Further, as another reviewer points out, it assumes an American dominance of the communications future. And, like it or not, the Internet has wrested that ability from any one nation. Let's assume that "Comcast-NBC-Verizon-Apple-Intel-Universal" (Hypothetical Conglomerate) were to make the internet "controlled" in the USA. This would be such an economic disadvantage the the US, that new pioneer firms would pop up in more free information markets. This will always serve as a disincentive towards central control.

My griping aside -- I can heartily recommend this book. Take some of the analyses with a grain of salt and make up your own mind -- but don't skip this book simply because it draws some dodgy conclusions. You'll learn a lot and it will make you think.

Opened my eyes

If you could sum up The Master Switch in three words, what would they be?

Abuse, abject stupidity.

What did you like best about this story?

Brilliant description of how technology and the human mind combine to bring human kind leaping into the future. A history of brilliance, blind stupidity and government control. The history line is brilliant and I am grateful for the book.

Which character – as performed by Marc Vietor – was your favorite?

Alexander Bell

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Phone call to my lover.

Any additional comments?

This is the kind of book that will change the minds and hearts of thinking freedom loving people. If we know who the enemy is, there is a chance to win.

Eastman Kodak declared bankruptcy last week and this week announced they will no long manufacturer digital cameras.

The story of hard work and success, blind ambition, blind stupid ambition, failure to see

Awesome!

Really dug this. Really makes you scared about cult companies like Apple. Read this if you're at all interested in technology, entertainment, communications, or just the future.