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Cory Doctorow: Interoperability Can Save the Open Web

How to free users from Big Tech’s walled gardens'

In his new book "The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation", author Cory Doctorow presents a strong case for disrupting Big Tech. While the dominance of Internet platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Amazon is often taken for granted, Doctorow argues that these walled gardens are fenced in by legal structures, not feats of engineering. Doctorow proposes forcing interoperability—any given platform’s ability to interact with another—as a way to break down those walls and to make the Internet freer and more democratic.

Reviews

"This book fills me with hope that a radical yet plausible alternative to computational tyranny can be developed and deployed. Indeed, demanding interoperability from today's tech monopolitists-or imposing it by force when they refuse-is the most actionable strategy I've yet encountered for turning our devices from tools of repression to ones of emancipation"

—Douglas Rushkoff, author of Survival of the Fittest

"Thoughtfully written and patiently presented, The Internet Con explains how the promise of a free and open internet was lost to predatory business practices and the rush to commodify every aspect of our lives. An essential read for anyone that wants to understand how we lost control of our digital spaces and infrastructure to Silicon Valley’s tech giants, and how we can start fighting to get it back."

—Tim Maughan, author of INFINITE DETAIL

"Nobody gets the internet-both the nuts and bolts that make it hum and the laws that shaped it into the mess it is-quite like Cory, and no one's better qualified to deliver us a user manual for fixing it. That's The Internet Con: a rousing, imaginative, and accessible treatise for correcting our curdled online world. If you care about the internet, get ready to dedicate yourself to making interoperability a reality.'"

—Brian Merchant, author of Blood in the Machine

"This book is the instruction manual Big Tech doesn't want you to read. It deconstructs their crummy products, undemocratic business models, rigged legal regimes, and lies. Crack this book and help build something better."

—Astra Taylor, author of Democracy May Not Exist, but We'll Miss It When Its Gone

"A brilliant barn burner of a book. Cory is one of the sharpest tech critics, and he shows with fierce clarity how our computational future could be otherwise"

—Kate Crawford, author of The Atlas of AI

"Doctorow has been thinking longer and smarter than anyone else I know about how we create and exchange value in a digital age."

—Douglas Rushkoff, author of Present Shock

"Journalist and novelist Doctorow (Red Team Blues) details a plan for how to break up Big Tech in this impassioned and perceptive manifesto….Doctorow's sense of urgency is contagious."

—Publishers Weekly

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