John Maguire: Jaron Lanier on How to Not Create a New Cyber Plutocracy

Jaron Lanier, one of the Founding Fathers of Virtual Reality and outspoken critic of Web 2.0, gives a presentation at Personal Democracy Forum 2012 in NYC on Cyber-Plutocracy. Lanier portrays Web 2.0 as a polarized-space where the Monopolization of Data/Network-Based Wealth co-exist side-by-side with the Open-Communities egalitarian drive for establishing Open-Information/Networking/Abundance.

While Lanier views ‘Open’ as a useful meme in fighting power, he also sees it as an incomplete solution. He argues for the necessity of a new middle-class if we hope to preserve net-democracy. Only by rethinking our current net-based economic models could this come to fruition. Lanier promotes a certain degree of monetization to accomplish this goal. He believes that Micro Royalty-Payments for creative-content could serve as a major stepping stone in establishing economic-dignity for a wide variety of net-contributors. Controversial depending on your point of view, but well worth a listen.

Published on Jul 3, 2012