Review of 'Internet Architecture and Innovation'

There's a new book out on Internet policy that is essential reading for anyone interested in Internet policy -- and probably for anyone interested in the law, economics, technology, or start-ups.

'Internet Architecture and Innovation' by Barbara van Schewick will affect how people think about the Internet; about the interactions between law and technical architectures in all areas of law; about entrepreneurship in general. I also think her insights on innovation economics, which strike me as far more persuasive than lawyers' usual assumptions, should influence "law and economics" thinking for the better. The book addresses how-specifically-the Internet's original architecture has fostered tremendous innovation in consumer and business software and therefore economic growth. The relationship between innovation and the Internet's architecture has been central to government policy debates around the world-as well as to the business plans of entrepreneurs and investors. While others have asserted and guessed that the Internet's architecture fosters economic innovation, she puts these assertions on solid theoretical and empirical ground, incorporating insights from engineering, management science, behavioral economics, real options theory, network economics, evolutionary economics, and legal policy. And you don't have to know anything about these areas in advance, as she doesn't expect the reader to be expert in one these fields.