Esther Dryson talks about how there are all sorts of books out there on the digital world for consumer (by digital world I am assuming she means that you can buy things off the Internet, off the television set through your telephone) and she says that there are millions of books on how to make a million dollars, but there is nothing out there to help us think about the internet and our roles as citizens, rule makers, and community members.

She says that the internet are telecommunication lines and switches all linked together.  She compares the net to a house, someplace where we may all call home.  She says the Internet is both he formal Internet as well as other networks and computers linked through other systems such as America Online, corporate intranet, and the free Juno email.  The Net includes all people of all cultures and communities that live in it.

She says that the net is a place where we can take total control of our lives and be who we want, make our own rules and take responsibility for it.

A Design For Living

Esther Dyson's goal for this book is to take away the mystery and take away our technophobia.  She wants to show us the potentials and richness of the net.  She says the net is a place for people to meet, talk, work, find out things, form committees, and pass on rumors.  It is a place for children to write to the president, the possibilities are endless.

You Know More Than You Think You Do

She wants us to interpret and shape this new world, the net, rather than just live in it.  Be a part of it.  She says that we have a say in what goes on, we ultimately are the ones that help to resolve conflicts.  Conflicts such as a person's privacy and another's right to know, between cultures, between an employer's goals and an employee's priorities.

I think this is where this subtitle: A Design for living in the digital age comes in:  We are helping to design a means to live in the digital age.  We are paving the direction of the path.  We have a say in which way the road will turn.

Human Nature on the Net

One major thing she wants us to realize is that this digital age is not pushing us into this antiseptic, digital place that we are dealing with.  She wants us to realize that it is real humans that we are dealing with out there.  People just like you and me.

Release X.X.

Here she talks about how when something comes out like her Release 1.0 newsletter, the author thinks of it as perfect, then a month later Release 1.1 comes out or a year later Release 2.0 comes out and now it is assumed to be perfect because there are more experienced and wiser programmers, but in actuality there is always change and ultimately there may be a release 3.0 somewhere down the road.

National Interest

The net belongs to no particular country or group.  The net is a place where several different villages can come together and flourish.

Why The Net Matters

The net matters because it is a place for people to communicate and conduct business, and share ideas.  Now, this new territory, digital world can become a place of untold productivity- a go between for terrorism, con artist and lies, the government can not regulate what happens in the digital world, but the net citizens can have a say.

Not Just For Commerce

"The Internet is friction-free", Bill Gates said.  There are opportunities out there that are free of change to customers, but friction-free is more than that, it means we get rid of friction that we are accustomed to in daily life.  Friction keeps gossip from following a person and keeps  people we that we don't want to see away from us.

With the absence of friction, this means that we can no longer rely on tradition and means to resolve conflicts between the rights of individuals by simply damping them out. In other words, no more privacy, once your privacy has been breached, it can be breached world wide.

Decentralization vs. Fragmentation

Decentralization is when the masses separate into small groups.  People and things no longer depend on a center to be connected and you are free to leave if you don't like the rules.  This part was confusing for me.  But, I am assuming that by decentralized it means you aren't connected to a center group, but you are among a group/family whereas fragmentation means you are just out on limbo.  (fragments here and there).  She also talks about how it is assumed that decentralized systems automatically self organize but that is not always true.  It is true only if the rules they play by are good and individuals taking part are hones.

Many of these systems that are composed of smaller independent agents don't self organize;  they fall into chaos and die.

The Challenge

The net allows for communities to make their own laws and policies so long as they don't harm people or things outside their (virtual) jurisdiction.  The people in these communities are free to go if they don't agree with what is going on.  It is voluntary.  But, the communities try to make it appealing to the members so that they won't leave at first disappointment or sign of trouble.  Communities vary, some are commercials and others are held together by common goals.