Transforming Global Information and Communication Markets
Information Revolution and Global Politics William J. Drake and Ernest. J. Wilson III, editors The Information Revolution and Developing Countries (2004) Ernest Wilson Human Rights in the Global Information Society (2006) Rikke Frank Jørgensen, editor Mobile Communications and Society: A Global Perspective (2007) Manuel Castells, Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol, Jack Linchuaun Qiu, and Araba Sey Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering (2008) Ronald Deibert, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, and Jonathan Zittrain, editors Governing Global Electronic Networks: International Perspectives on Policy and Power (2008) William J. Drake and Ernest J. Wilson III, editors Transforming Global Information and Communication Markets: The Political Economy of Innovation (2009) Peter F. Cowhey and Jonathan D. Aronson, with Donald Abelson
Transforming Global Information and Communication Markets The Political Economy of Innovation Peter F. Cowhey and Jonathan D. Aronson with Donald Abelson The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England
2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All rights reserved. Subject to the exception immediately following, this book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including the illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without permission from the publishers. An online version of this work is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike 3.0 license. It can be accessed at http://irps.ucsd.edu/globalinfoandtelecom/. For information on quantity discounts, email special_sales@mitpress.mit.edu. Set in Stone serif 9/13 by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cowhey, Peter F., 1948 Transforming global information and communication markets: the political economy of innovation / Peter F. Cowhey and Jonathan D. Aronson with Donald Abelson p. cm. (Information revolution and global politics) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-01285-0 (hard cover: alk.paper) 1. Technological innovations Economic aspects. 2. Information technology Technological innovations. 3. Information technology Economic aspects. 4. Telecommunication Technological innovations. I. Aronson, Jonathan David. II. Abelson, Donald. III. Title. HC79.T4C694 2009 303.48'33 dc22 2008031058 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1 vii I The Inflection Point 1 The Next Revolution in Global Information and Communication Markets 7 2 The First Two ICT Eras 19 3 Modularity at the Inflection Point 43 4 Modularity and Innovation 65 5 The Political Economy of the Inflection Point 95 II A Theoretical Interlude 6 Theory before Policy 129 III Three Dimensions of Global Market Governance 7 Trade and the Global Network Revolution 149 8 Wireless Infrastructure 175 9 Internet Governance 207 Summary and Conclusions (with Donald Abelson) 233 Notes 269 Index 337
Acknowledgments We owe thanks for suggestions and tolerance to all of the usual suspects family, friends, colleagues, and research assistants. We particularly want to recognize and thank three of our colleagues in ICT policy. Milton Mueller was a co-author on an earlier paper on which chapter 9 draws heavily. Donald Abelson joined us as a co-author of the summary. John Richards was the perfect sounding board, agreeing and disagreeing with our arguments and provoking us to refine our thinking as the chapters took shape. Chapters 8 and 9 also draw heavily on papers that he co-authored with us. And he read the final manuscript and provided us with insightful suggestions and criticisms. Many people shared their ideas with us; a substantial number did so off the record. We thank those anonymous sources and these who were on the record: Don Abelson, Francois Bar, Michael Borrus, Carlos Casasus, Manuel Castells, Bob Conn, Cory Doctorow, Kenneth Cukier, Pierre de Vries, Gerald Faulhaber, Eric Gan, Don Gips, Scott Harris, Reed Hundt, David Hytha, Mimi Ito, Michael Kleeman, Zhong Yuan Li, Paul Maritz, Cory Ondrejka, Robert Pepper, Peter Preuss, Nicholas Pujet, Howard Rheingold, Gregory Rosston, Sachio Semmoto, Larry Smarr, Simon Wilkie, and John Zysman. We also thank Cindy Hwang, Piyoo Kochar, Emilie Lasserson, Federica Marchesi, and Meg Young for research assistance. None of these friends and critics is responsible for any errors of fact or argument that may remain. For family (Margaret, Megan, Joan, Adam, and Zach) and mentors (Robert O. Keohane and in memory of Ernst B. Haas). All of them inflection points in our lives.
Transforming Global Information and Communication Markets