Tim Wu

Attention merchant: an industrial-scale harvester of human attention. A firm whose business model is the mass capture of attention for resale to advertisers. In nearly every moment of our waking lives, we face a barrage of advertising enticements, branding efforts, sponsored social media, commercials and other efforts to harvest our attention. Over the last century, few times or spaces have remained uncultivated by the attention merchants, contributing to the distracted, unfocused tenor of our times. Tim Wu argues that this is not simply the byproduct of recent inventions but the end result of more than a centurys growth and expansion in the industries that feed on human attention. From the pre-Madison Avenue birth of advertising to TVs golden age to our present age of radically individualized choices, the business model of attention merchants has always been the same. He describes the revolts that have risen against these relentless attempts to influence our consumption, from the remote control to FDA regulations to Apples ad-blocking OS. But he makes clear that attention merchants grow ever-new heads, and their means of harvesting our attention have given rise to the defining industries of our time, changing our nature - cognitive, social, and otherwise - in ways unimaginable even a generation ago.

Were three decades into a global experiment: what happens when the major nations of the world weaken their control on the size and power of corporate giants and allow unrestricted expansion?In The Curse of Bigness Tim Wu exposes the threats monopolies pose to economic stability and social freedom around the world. Aided by the globalization of commerce and finance, in recent years, we have seen takeovers galore that make a mockery of the ideals of competition and economic freedom. Such is the reality of the curse of bigness: stifled entrepreneurship, stalled productivity, dominant tech giants like Facebook and Google, and fewer choices for consumers.Urgent and persuasive, this bold manifesto argues that we need to rediscover the anti-monopoly traditions that brought great peace and prosperity in the past.

After 41 years has a professor of the very subjects Tim Wu addresses and a director of current research in the same line of country, where I personally knew many of the key actors he vividly and fairly portrays, I am blown away by this textbook. It is a masterpiece of scholarship, wit, insight, synthesis, and bears the gift of expositing the complex in crystal-clear page-turning narrative. I am sure it will be required reading in law schools, business programs and all graduate programs on the crucial role of the communication and media industries in our political economy and mass culture. And the students will be grateful, a true contribution that moves us all forward. -- John M. Phelan, PhD, Professor Emeritus and Founding Director, McGannon Center for Research in Ethics and Communication, Fordham University.

In this age of an open Internet, it is easy to forget that every American information industry, beginning with the telephone, has eventually been taken captive by some ruthless monopoly or cartel With all our media now traveling a single network, an unprecedented potential is building for centralized control over what Americans see and hear...

The Internet Age: on the face of it, an era of unprecedented freedom in both communication and culture. Yet in the past, each major new medium, from telephone to satellite television, has crested on a wave of similar idealistic optimism, before succumbing to the inevitable undertow of industrial consolidation. Every once free and open technology has, in time, become centralized and closed; as corporate power has taken control of the ''master switch.'' Today a similar struggle looms over the Internet, and as it increasingly supersedes all other media the stakes have never been higher. Part industrial expose, part examination of freedom of expression, The Master Switch reveals a crucial drama - full of indelible characters - as it has played out over decades in the shadows of global communication

En un momento en que el acceso a la información es prácticamente ilimitado, nuestra atención se ha convertido en un producto fundamental para el mercado.¿Sentimos que desafían nuestra atención? Los negocios de Occidente dependen de ello. En casi cada momento de nuestras vidas, nos enfrentamos a un aluvion de mensajes, incentivos publicitarios, marcas, redes sociales y otros esfuerzos para captar nuestra atencion. Pocos momentos o espacios cotidianos permanecen intactos por los "comerciantes de atencion". Pero Tim Wu sostiene que esta condicion no es simplemente el subproducto de innovaciones tecnologicas recientes, sino el resultado de mas de un siglo de crecimiento y expansion de las industrias que se nutren de la atencion humana.Desde el nacimiento de la publicidad hasta la explosion de la web movil; de la invencion del correo electronico a los monopolios de atencion de Google y Facebook; desde Ed Sullivan hasta marcas famosas como Oprah Winfrey, Kim Kardashian y Donald Trump, el modelo de negocio basico de los comerciantes de atencion no ha cambiado: desvio gratuito a cambio de un momento de nuestra consideracion, que a su vez es vendido al anunciante con la oferta mas alta.

From the author of the award-winning The Master Switch, who coined the term "net neutralitya revelatory, ambitious and urgent account of how the capture and re-sale of human attention became the defining industry of our time. "Dazzling." Financial TimesOurs is often called an information economy, but at a moment when access to information is virtually unlimited, our attention has become the ultimate commodity. In nearly every moment of our waking lives, we face a barrage of efforts to harvest our attention. This condition is not simply the byproduct of recent technological innovations but the result of more than a centurys growth and expansion in the industries that feed on human attention. Wus narrative begins in the nineteenth century, when Benjamin Day discovered he could get rich selling newspapers for a penny. Since then, every new mediumfrom radio to television to Internet companies such as Google and Facebookhas attained commercial viability and immense riches by turning itself into an advertising platform. Since the early days, the basic business model of attention merchants has never changed: free diversion in exchange for a moment of your time, sold in turn to the highest-bidding advertiser. Full of lively, unexpected storytelling and piercing insight, The Attention Merchants lays bare the true nature of a ubiquitous reality we can no longer afford to accept at face value.

Ensayo desde la historia de la comunicación, que pone en duda la neutralidad de internet ante el poder de los monopolios y la industria del entretenimiento. Tim Wu, caracteriza y describe cada etapa por la que una innovacion tecnologica ha pasado -como es el caso del telefono, la radio, el cine o la television- generando un Ciclo que las lleva de una prometedora apertura a ser parte de una industria cerrada y controlada. La mayor preocupacion del autor es entender que y como se activa la rueda de la historia y si es inevitable que la red global, que permea cada vez mas cada aspecto de la vida y el trabajo, es capaz de romper el ciclo o inevitablemente el acceso a ella, sera cooptado por aquellos que tienen el control politico y financiero y con ello el poder sobre la informacion.

Todays dominant tech platforms are the most effective tools ever created for extracting wealth, destabilising the societies they plunder by creating vast inequality. One of the worlds pre-eminent anti-monopoly experts explains how and why we must take back control.Wu is a titan . . . a must-readFINANCIAL TIMESCuts to the coreCORY DOCTOROW, author of EnshittificationEssentialKAREN HAO, author of Age of EmpireOur world is ruled by a handful of tech platforms. They provide great conveniences and entertainment but also stand as some of the most effective instruments of wealth extraction ever invented, seizing immense amounts of money, data and attention from all of us. An economy driven by tech and AI could enrich us, yet it could also marginalize entire industries, widen the wealth gap and foster a two-class nation. As technology evolves and our markets adapt, can society cultivate a better way? Is it possible to balance economic growth and egalitarianism, or are we too late?Tim Wu, the preeminent scholar and former White House official who coined the phrase net neutrality, tells the story of an internet that promised widespread wealth and democracy, only to aid the spread of autocracy instead. From generative AI and predictive social data to antitrust and cryptocurrency, Wu frames our current moment within key lessons from recent history. And, perhaps most importantly of all, Wu envisions a future where technological advances serve the greatest possible good for everyone.Concise and hopeful, The Age of Extraction offers consequential proposals for reclaiming control to achieve better economic balance and prosperity for all.A passionate call for a fairer economyDARON ACEMOGLU, co-author of Why Nations FailA how-to book on how we can achieve libertyMATT STOLLER, author of Goliath

Winner of the 2011 Business Book of the Year AwardThe Internet Age: on the face of it, an era of unprecedented freedom in both communication and culture. Yet in the past, each major new medium, from telephone to satellite television, has crested on a wave of similar idealistic optimism, before succumbing to the inevitable undertow of industrial consolidation. Every once free and open technology has, in time, become centralized and closed; as corporate power has taken control of the master switch. Today a similar struggle looms over the Internet, and as it increasingly supersedes all other media the stakes have never been higher. Part industrial expose, part examination of freedom of expression, The Master Switch reveals a crucial drama - full of indelible characters - as it has played out over decades in the shadows of global communication.

Nos enfrentamos constantemente a un aluvión de anuncios, redes sociales y otros esfuerzos para captar nuestra atención. Esto no es el subproducto de innovaciones tecnológicas recientes, sino el resultado de mas de un siglo de crecimiento y expansion en las industrias que se nutren de la atencion humana. El modelo de negocio no ha cambiado: desvio gratuito a cambio de un momento de su consideracion que se vende al anunciante con la oferta mas alta. Pese a las revueltas que se han levantado contra el implacable asedio de nuestra conciencia, los comerciantes de atencion siempre estan desarrollando nuevas ideas, incluso cuando sus medios para entrar en nuestras cabezas estan cambiando nuestra propia naturaleza (cognitiva, social, politica...) en formas inimaginables hace una generacion.