Value of Social Networks

Today I received this e-mail about an author and his new book--in Cambridge, MA. To quote:

I thought some of you might be interested in this event featuring Yochai Benkler speaking about his new book:
Please join Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society on Tuesday evening for a short talk by Yochai Benkler, and then a celebration in his honor. Prof. Benkler has recently published his book, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom," through the Yale University Press.

Prof. Benkler's research at Yale Law School focuses on the effects of laws that regulate information production and exchange on the distribution of control over information flows, knowledge, and culture in the digital environment. His particular focus has been the neglected role of commons-based approaches toward management of resources in the digitally networked environment, the increasing importance of nonmarket production in general and collaborative peer production in particular, and the significance of these phenomena in both economic and political terms.

The Wealth of Networks is a comprehensive social theory of the Internet and the networked information economy. In it, Benkler describes how patterns of information, knowledge, and cultural production are changing-and shows that the way information and knowledge are made available can either limit or enlarge the ways people can create and express themselves.

More information on the book (and ordering information) is available at

http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=0300110561
and you may download it (parts and much more) on his wiki at http://www.benkler.org/wealth_of_networks/index.php/Main_Page.

Sounds interesting...Benny