The Digital Era 2 Political Economy Revisited

Over 200 years, industry has mastered iron, fire, power and energy. Today, electronics shape our everyday objects with the widespread integration of chips; from computers and telephones to keys, games and white goods. Data, software and computation structure our behavior and the organization of our lives. Everything is translated into data: the digit is king.

Consisting of three volumes, The Digital Era explores technical, economic and social phenomena that result from the generalization of the Internet. This second volume discusses the impact of digital technology on the evolution of market relations and the media and examines the reasons why such changes put political economy to the test.

Jean-Pierre Chamoux is Emeritus Professor at Paris Descartes University in France. He has advised France, The World Bank and Europe in leading telecommunications towards the digital era and is chair of the Comité Jean Fourastié.

Note to Reader ix

Preface xi

Introduction xxvii
Jean-Pierre CHAMOUX

Part 1. A Disruptive Economy 1

Introduction to Part 1 3
Jean-Pierre CHAMOUX

Chapter 1. Companies: the Great Transformation 7
Godefroy DANG N’GUYEN

Information: the raw material of digital technology 10

The causes of disruption and their limits 14

The business philosophy of digital technology 15

Moving upmarket and buybacks 16

Concluding reflections 19

Bibliography 21

Chapter 2. Media: Innovation, Self-production, Creativity 23
Jean-Paul SIMON

User-generated content: scaling up 26

Books, authors and communities 30

Cinema and video: creation, streaming and parodies 35

Do it yourself with music: new creativity? 39

Press and information: dialogue with readers or free work? 40

Video games: co-innovators? 43

Conclusion: creativity, but a limited model 45

Bibliography 47

Chapter 3. New Intermediaries: Extra-territorial Platforms 55
Stéphane GRUMBACH

What has changed? 57

Intermediation 58

Platform economics 60

Laws of the digital economy 63

Going towards a new management of resources 69

Building political legitimacy 71

Conclusion 74

Bibliography 75

Part 2. New Perspectives 77

Introduction to Part 2 79
Jean-Pierre CHAMOUX

Chapter 4. The Collaborative Economy: What Are We Talking About? 81
Godefroy DANG N’GUYEN

Numerous examples 83

Commercial versus collaborative peer-to-peer 85

Peer-to-peer trading, the intermediation’s triumph 87

How is collaborative peer-to-peer actually organized? 91

Are commons manageable? 93

Looking at the future of collaborative peer-to-peer 96

Conclusion 97

Bibliography 99

Chapter 5. Towards a Post-industrial iconomy 101
Michel VOLLE

Summary of previous times 103

Real and imagined digital influence 104

Can an intelligence be artificial? 109

Distinguishing power from intelligence 113

In summary: towards the iconomy? 115

Conclusion and recommendations 121

Bibliography 123

Chapter 6. The Chips Industry: Moore and Rock’s Laws 125
Gérard DRÉAN

Some words about technique: where do we stand today? 127

High-tech production 128

An original economy 129

Rock’s law leads to concentration 130

De-integration, specialization and reconfiguration 132

How to stay in the lead pack? 133

Bibliography 135

Chapter 7. Measuring and Compiling Wealth 137
Jean-Pierre CHAMOUX

National accounting and gross revenue 140

Consequences of post-industrial society 145

How can the digital economy be better described? 150

Elements for a summary 154

Bibliography 157

Appendix A. Microelectronics: a typically multinational sector 158

Appendix B. Trade, currencies and digital disruption 161

Conclusion 165
Jean-Pierre CHAMOUX

Appendices 187

Appendix 1 189

Appendix 2 191

List of Authors 193

Index of Names and Brands 195

Index of Notions 199

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