Transforming Global Information and Communication Markets: The Political Economy of Innovation.

AuthorGreenberg, Jeffrey
PositionFurther Reading - Book review

TRANSFORMING GLOBAL INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION MARKETS: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF INNOVATION

Peter F. Cowhey and Jonathan D.

Aronson with Donald Abelson (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2009), 368 pages.

Information and communication technology (ICT) is the constantly evolving backbone of the global economy. Cowhey and Aronson meticulously chart the history of the ICT marketplace and analyze the dynamic impact of politics and policy on the development of ICT. In this authoritative work, the authors seamlessly transition from broad principles and theory to specific historical details. They believe that the world's information economy is currently at a pivotal inflection point, and seek to answer both how we have arrived here and the most auspicious path forward.

Cowhey and Aronson point to Intel's former chairman and CEO Andrew Grove's definition of an inflection point as "occur[ing] where the old strategic picture dissolves and gives way to the new." According to the authors, we are entering the third transformation of global ICT markets. The first era, from the 1950s to 1984, introduced the concept of modularity, i.e., the ability to mix and match components. The breakup of...

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