Before I began this project I did not know if I would have the courage to go forward without knowing where the key questions would lead. I know now where my courage came from: a large community of friends and colleagues and family.
No chapter came exclusively from my solitary hand. I must thank numerous collaborators with whom I have had the privilege to write articles and essays over the years. These efforts informed all the chapters in this book. That includes Angelique Augereau, Tim Bresnahan, Lorrie Cranor, Paul David, Tom Downes, Chris Forman, Avi Goldfarb, Rebecca Henderson, Michael Mazzeo, Ryan McDevitt, Frank Nagle, Jeff Prince, Greg Rosston, Marc Rysman, Pablo Spiller, Greg Stranger, Catherine Tucker, and Victor Stango. Relatedly, a number of editors motivated me to write those articles. I would like to thank William Aspray, Michael Baye, Ernst Berndt, Amar Bhidé, Sherrie Bolin, Erik Brynjolfsson, Carl Cargill, Wes Cohen, Benjamin Compaine, Paul Ceruzzi, Lorrie Cranor, Mike Cusumano, Maryann Feldman, Barbara Fraumeni, Annabelle Gawer, Sharon Gillett, Bronwyn Hall, Rebecca Henderson, Chuck Hulten, Adam Jaffe, Steve Kahl, Brian Kahin, Josh Lerner, Al Link, Franco Malerba, Sumit Majumdar, Robin Mansell, Richard Newell, Martin Peitz, Nathan Rosenberg, Brian Silverman, Scott Stern, Ingo Vogelsang, Joel Waldfogel, Phil Weiser, and Steve Wildman.
Many friends suffered through the reading of half-baked and partially completed chapters, and they deserve praise for their inspiration, comments, and suggestions. In addition to my coauthors and editors, I wish to thank Ranna Rozenfeld, Ajay Agrawal, Jon Aronson, Ashish Arora, Jonathan Baker, Carliss Baldwin, Ernst Berndt, David Besanko, Marjory Blumenthal, Pablo Boczkowski, Jen Brown, David Burstein, Maja Butovich, Martin Campbell-Kelly, Robert Cannon, KC Claffy, Iain Cockburn, Linda Cohen, Wes Cohen, Jim Cortada, Michael Cusumano, James Dana, Leemore Dafny, Paul David, Mark Doms, David Dranove, Roberto Fontana, Alfonso Gambardella, Mark Greenstein, Renee Greenstein, Zvi Griliches, Tom Haigh, Eszter Hargittai, Tom Hazlett, Igal Hendel, John Horrigan, David Hounshell, Tom Hubbard, Marco Iansiti, Benjamin Jones, Karim Lakhani, Kevin Maney, Sarit Markovich, Kristina McElheran, Therese McGuire, Joel Mokyr, Aviv Nevo, Roger Noll, Robert Porter, John Quarterman, William Rogerson, Nathan Rosenberg, Richard Rosenbloom, Andrew Russell, Mark Satterthwaite, Christian Sandvig, Scott Savage, Alicia Shems, Tim Simcoe, Marvin Sirbu, Jim Speta, Kathy Spier, Daniel Spulber, Scott Stern, Manuel Trajtenberg, Ann Velenchik, Joel Waldfogel, Scott Wallsten, David Warsh, Philip Webre, Kevin Werbach, Joel West, Jody Weverka, Phil Weverka, Larry White, Simon Wilkie, Oliver Williamson, David Yoffie, Chris Yoo, and the wonderful readers at Larry Bernstein’s Chicago Book Club. Please forgive any oversight if I have forgotten to mention someone. Please accept my gratitude.
Special thanks must go to those who did editorial work on drafts of articles that informed this book. Over many years the IEEE provided a space for working out some of my ideas in columns for the membership. Thanks to Molly Gamborg, Marie English, Kristine Kelly, Janet Wilson, and Jenny Fererro for their comments and suggestions. Alicia Shems copyedited the first draft of every chapter of this book. She is a wonder, and I owe her a tremendous amount of gratitude. Tim Bresnahan, Chris Forman, and Avi Goldfarb read an early draft and provided numerous comments and valuable observations. Kristina McElheran took her red pen to half of the later drafts. I wish I could write as well as she wants me to. Adam Greenstein and Hannah Weverka examined the penultimate draft, and made many excellent suggestions. Dawn Hall copyedited the final manuscript with her extraordinary eye for detail. They deserve a huge thank you.
Over the years I have benefited from the feedback of many audiences and lunchtime companions, too numerous to enumerate. I must single out and thank hundreds of students at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, who have suffered through pieces of this material in the classroom. Special thanks go to audiences at the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference, Silicon Flatirons, and the National Bureau of Economic Research, where early drafts of papers have been presented. I am grateful to the Searle Center for sponsoring a book reading, and I am especially grateful to all who attended that event. It meant a great deal to me. Seth Ditchik of Princeton University Press reviewed many aspects of the project, and arranged for many anonymous reviewers. I tried to listen to these reviewers and respond, and I hope those reviewers understand how much I appreciate their suggestions and feedback.
A number of people gave their time for an interview. They deserve thanks for sharing their insights and making events real to me with their memories. Gratitude goes to Tim Berners-Lee, Scott Bradner, Robert Cannon, David Clark, Gordon Cook, David Crocker, Barbara Dooley, Tim Draper, Dale Hatfield, Victor Hayes, Brian Kahin, William C. Lowe, Scott Marcus, Bill McCarthy, Michael Nelson, Barbara O’Keefe, Craig Partridge, John Quarterman, William Schrader, Ben Slivka, Marvin Theimer, Hal Varian, Todd Warren, Ted Weverka, Phil Weiser, Jeannette M. Wing, Terry Winograd, Irving Wladawsky-Berger, and Stephen Wolff. Special thanks to Dale Hatfield for familiarizing me with the phrase, “Innovation from the Edges.” More special thanks go to the participants on Robert Cannon’s Cybertelecom listserv for educating me. I never had to interview anyone on that listserv because—sans any question from me—they often ended up providing the answers I sought.
Gratitude goes to the organizations that funded pieces of this work. Throughout the process I have been grateful to my employers, the Economics Department at the University of Illinois, and the Management and Strategy Department at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, for providing a nurturing home for research and writing. My employer also funded projects that fed into this book. At the University of Illinois I received support from the Institute for Government and Public Affairs. At Northwestern University I received support from the dean’s office of the Kellogg School of Management, the Searle Center for Law Regulation and Economic Growth, and the Institute for Public Research. The National Science Foundation and Council on Library Resources supported this research at a very early stage in the middle of the 1990s, when I first began examining the economics of communications infrastructure. I hope they appreciate what a catalytic role that early funding played in my thinking. Robert Strom at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation acted as the catalyst for starting the writing of this book, when he funded a brief respite from teaching. The project took a great deal longer to complete than anticipated, so I needed funding to find the time to finish it. For that I am grateful to the Technology Operations and Management group at the Harvard Business School for their hospitality and support. I also thank the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University, and the Center for Digital Business, Sloan School of Management, MIT, for their hospitality during that final period of writing.
I wish to thank all the research assistance I have received over the years on projects related to chapters in this book. Gratitude goes to Guy Arie, Angelique Augereau, Howard Berkson, Oded Bizan, Helen Connolly, Holly Gill, Brittany Jackel, Kristina McElheran, Jordan McDole, Mian Dai, Tam Le, Heather Radach, Alex Risman, and Benjamin Rothschild. Special thanks go to Northbrook Gymnastics Training Center for offering a table and chair from which to watch my children grow up; it also turned out to be a quiet location for writing a couple hours every Saturday.
Despite so much help, mistakes are inevitable in a project of this scale and scope. I must take responsibility for all remaining errors.
Last and not least, my family deserves enormous gratitude. They have lived with this project for a long time and watched me push aside other matters in order to engage with it. At last they can stop asking when it will be finished. Thank you Mom, Dad, Betty, Irv, Mark, Renee, Jody, Phil, David, Barbara, Debby, Charley, Ellen, Milford, Jon, and Jill. Special heartfelt thanks go to Barbara, Eli, Ilana, Rebecca, Noah, and Ranna. You deserve a big hug.