How did openness become a foundational value for the networks of the twenty-first century? Open Standards and the Digital Age answers this question through an interdisciplinary history of information networks that pays close attention to the politics of standardization. For much of the twentieth century, information networks such as the monopoly Bell System and the American military’s Arpanet were closed systems subject to centralized control. In the 1970s and 1980s, however, engineers in the United States and Europe experimented with design strategies to create new digital networks. In the process, they embraced discourses of “openness” to describe their ideological commitments to entrepreneurship, technological innovation, and participatory democracy. The rhetoric of openness has flourished – for example, in movements for open government, open source software, and open access publishing – but such rhetoric also obscures the ways the Internet and other “open” systems still depend heavily on hierarchical forms of control.
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Ideological Origins of Open Standards I: Telegraph and Engineering Standards, 1860s–1900s
3. Ideological Origins of Open Standards II: American Standards, 1910s–1930s
4. Standardization and the Monopoly Bell System, 1880s–1930s
5. Critiques of Centralized Control, 1930s–1970s
6. International Standards for the Convergence of Computers and Communications, 1960s–1970s
7. Open Systems and the Limits of Democratic Design, 1970s–1980s
8. The Internet and the Advantages of Autocratic Design, 1970s–1990s
9. Conclusion: Open Standards and an Open World
Endorsements
“This book contributes significantly to our understanding of the current state of affairs in information technology and governance, while also making original contributions to our understanding of the evolution of business institutions across the long twentieth century. Drawing on substantial original research, Andrew L. Russell argues that processes for setting industry standards have embodied broadly felt (and often competing) values regarding American governance. He shows how standards-setting has functioned as a central element of American political economy, with a rich history of far greater importance in the affairs of the nation than historians have previously understood. In the process, we come to see how the current enthusiasm for open systems and standards fits in a larger story of American governance. The current situation is neither a radical break nor an idealized state, as much contemporary literature insists and celebrates. Rather, it is a refinement in the face of shifting economic conditions that reflects and draws on a persistent commitment to economic liberalism. This is an important point that will garner considerable attention from historians and contemporary business analysts.”
– Steven W. Usselman, Professor of History and Chair of the School of History, Technology, and Society, Georgia Institute of Technology
“Andrew L. Russell’s book describes how we got to the twenty-first-century information society, the ‘Open World,’ through focusing a standardization lens on the history of American communication and information technology as it evolved from the late nineteenth century. Russell’s book is the first history of American communication and information technology to focus on standardization and its processes and implications. Understanding how standardization has evolved is critical to understanding our commercial world today, and Russell provides a key contribution by exploring its evolution in the realm of ICTs. His look at how ideologies and critiques of ideologies and institutions drove the evolution of standardization regimes is a real contribution to the literature. He also adds to the field by showing that the notions and values of open standards, open systems, and the Open World have a long prehistory.”
– JoAnne Yates, Sloan Distinguished Professor of Management and Professor of Managerial Communication and Work and Organization Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management
Reviews
December 2015 – Dov Lungu, Review of Open Standards and the Digital Age, Isis Vol. 106 No. 4, pp. 985-6.
Autumn 2015 – Paul Duguid, Review of Open Standards and the Internet Age, Business History Review Vol. 89 Issue 2, pp. 357-360.
June 2015 – Allison Powell, Review of Open Standards and the Digital Age, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing Vol. 37 Issue 2, pp. 89-90.
April 2015 – James Cortada, Review of Open Standards and the Digital Age, The American Historical Review Vol. 120 Issue 3, pp. 570-571.
April 2015 – Stuart Shapiro, Review of Open Standards and the Digital Age, Information & Culture: A Journal of History Vol. 50.
March 2015 – Shane Greenstein, Networking Standards and Russell’s Revisionism, IEEE Micro Vol. 35 Issue 1.
January 2015 – Valérie Schafer, Review of Open Standards and the Digital Age, Le Temps des Médias 2014/2 no.23, 236-238
December 2014 – Thomas J. Misa, CBI Sources for Open Standards and the Digital Age, CBI Newsletter Vol. 36, No. 2
November 2014 – Leah R. Shafer, Review of Open Standards and the Digital Age, Afterimage Vol. 42, No. 3
July 2014 – Review of Open Standards and the Digital Age, IEEE History Center Newsletter
Public Events
Press/Interviews
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[…] he leído acerca de la publicación de un libro titulado Open Standards and the Digital Age: History, Ideology, and Networks (Cambridge University Press, 2014), escrito por Andrew L. Russell (página web), profesor […]
[…] in a Stevens College of Arts Letters. (See his website here.) Andy is a author of a new book, Open Standards and a Digital Age: History, Ideology, and Networks, published by Cambridge University Press, that hurdles misconceptions about a origins of digital […]
[…] of history and director of the Program in Science and Technology Studies. Andy’s new book, Open Standards and the Digital Age: History, Ideology, and Networks, challenges myths about the origins of digital technologies, including the Internet. No less an […]
[…] The following paragraphs draw on material published in chapter 4 of Andrew L. Russell, Open Standards in the Digital Age: History, Ideology, and Networks (Cambridge University Press, 2014); and Andrew L. Russell, “Bancroft Gherardi and the Monopoly […]