The Rise and Fall of Information Empires and the Battle to Control the ‘Master Switch’

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The Internet Age represents an era of unprecedented freedom in both communication and culture. However each major new medium, from telephone to satellite television, has crested 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 centralised and closed; a huge corporate power taking control of the ‘master switch’.

Today, as a similar struggle looms over the Internet, increasingly the pipeline of all other media, the stakes have never been higher. At this joint OII/RISJ seminar, Tim Wu speaks to John Lloyd and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger about information technology history and shares his unique insight into the next chapter of global communication as he launches his new book ‘The Master Switch’ in the UK.