[kictanet] The Googlization of Everything ... by Siva Vidyanathan]

[alice wanjira]

How one company is disrupting culture, commerce and commerce ... and
why we should worry!

This blog, the result of a collaboration between myself and the
Institute for the Future of the Book, is dedicated to exploring the
process of writing a critical interpretation of the actions and
intentions behind the cultural behemoth that is Google, Inc. The book
will answer three key questions: What does the world look like through
the lens of Google?; How is Google's ubiquity affecting the production
and dissemination of knowledge?; and how has the corporation altered
the rules and practices that govern other companies, institutions, and
states? [more]

* * *

Hi. Welcome to my book.

Hi. Welcome to my new book. Well, it's not a book yet. In fact, it
will not be a real book for a long time.

As you can tell from the title of this blog, the book will be about
Google and all they ways that Google is shaking up the world. Google
is a transformative and revolutionary company. I hesitate to use terms
like that. We live in an era of hyperbole. So I try my best to
discount claims of historical transformation or communicative
revolutions.

But in the case of Google, I am confident it is both.

Now, I am approaching this book as both a fan and a critic. I am in
awe of all that Google has done and all it hopes to do. I am also wary
of its ambition and power.

As I use this site to compose the manuscript (an archaic word that I
love too much to discard) for the book The Googlization of Everything,
I hope to do so with your help.

This is the latest in a series of "open book" experiments hosted and
guided by The Institute for the Future of the Book. The Institute has
been supportive of my work for years -- long before I became
affiliated with it as a fellow and certainly long before we thought up
this project together. As with the other projects by Ken Wark and
Mitch Stephens, this one will depend on reader criticism and feedback
to work right. So this is an appeal for help. If you know something
about Google, hip me to it. If you have an observation about how it
works or how it affects our lives, write to me about it.

On occasion, I will post an open question on this blog. Please help me
answer it.

I have never tried to write a book this way. Few have. Writing has
been a lonely, selfish pursuit for me so far. I tend to wall myself
off from the world (and my loved ones) for days at a time in fits and
spurts when I get into a writing groove. I don't shave. I order pizza.
I grumble. I ignore emails from my mother.

I tend to comb through and revise every sentence five or six times
(although I am not sure that actually shows up in the quality of my
prose). Only when I am sure that I have not embarrassed myself (or
when the editor calls to threaten me with a canceled contract –
whichever comes first) do I show anyone what I have written. Now, this
is not an uncommon process. Closed composition is the default among
writers. We go to great lengths to develop trusted networks of readers
and other writers with whom we can workshop – or as I prefer to call
it because it's what the jazz musicians do, woodshed our work.

Well, I am going to do my best to woodshed in public. As I compose
bits and pieces of work, I will post them here. They might be very
brief bits. They might never make it into the manuscript. But they
will be up here for you to rip up or smooth over.

That's the thing. For a number of years now I have made my bones in
the intellectual world trumpeting the virtues of openness and the
values of connectivity. I was an early proponent of applying "open
source" models to scholarship, journalism, and lots of other things.

And, more to the point: One of my key concerns with Google is that it
is a black box. Something that means so much to us reveals so little
of itself.

So I would be a hypocrite if I wrote this book any other way. This
book will not be a black box.

Of course, it could get ugly in here. I could make tremendous
mistakes. I could shoot something out there that shuts all doors at
Google. I could undermine my ultimate market (but I seriously doubt
that I could). I could just write myself into a corner.

In my next post I will share a rough chapter outline. And I will give
some sense of the basic questions and major issues that I hope to
tackle in this work.

Ok. As Sgt. Phil used to say, "Let's roll. And let's be careful out there."

Send me links, questions and ideas:
siva [at] googlizationofeverything [dot] com

http://www.googlizationofeverything.com/2007/09/hi_welcome_to_my_book.php

* * *

Like the Mind of God (6 posts)

All the World's Information (5 posts)

What If Big Ads Don't Work (4 posts)

Don't Be Evil (3 posts)

Is Google a Library? (15 posts)

Challenging Big Media (11 posts)

The Dossier (3 posts)

Global Google (1 post)

Google Earth (no posts)

A Public Utility? (7 posts)

About this Book (7 post

Siva Vaidhyanathan
(how do you pronounce that?)


Siva Vaidhyanathan I am a cultural historian and media scholar at the
University of Virginia. I have written two previous books: Copyrights
and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens
Creativity (New York University Press, 2001) and The Anarchist in the
Library: How the Clash between Freedom and Control is Hacking the Real
World and Crashing the System (Basic Books, 2004). Most recently I
edited (with Carolyn de la Pena) the collection, Rewiring the Nation:
The Place of Technology in American Studies (Johns Hopkins University
Press, 2007).

I've written for many periodicals, including American Scholar, The
Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times Magazine, MSNBC.COM,
Salon.com, openDemocracy.net, Columbia Journalism Review, and The
Nation. I also blog at SIVACRACY.NET.

After five years as a professional journalist, I earned a Ph.D. in
American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. I've taught
at Wesleyan University, the University of Wisconsin at Madison,
Columbia University, New York University, and is this fall began as an
associate professor of Media Studies and Law at the University of
Virginia. I'm also a fellow at the New York Institute for the
Humanities and the Institute for the Future of the Book.
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