Politics and economics aside, I will buy the whole book.

I am talking about a book praised lavishly by Lawrence Lessig called The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom by Yochai Benkler.

How do I know I will buy the book? Because it can be read for free under a Creative Commons License and very early this morning I downloaded and skimmed three chapters . . .  Chapter 6  Political Freedom Part 1: The Trouble with Mass Media; Chapter 7 Political Freedom Part 2: Emergence of the Networked Public Sphere; and Chapter 10: Networking Together. It is an academic exegesis of the impact of the shifts in politics, business, culture, and music being wrought by networks and digitally intermediated social connectedness.

I might have stepped right by the book at my local bookshop had I not been able to read a few chapters over early morning coffee. Hence my praise of Benkler and Yale University Press' willingess to make it available for donwload.