Talk:The Study of the Internet: New Methods for New Technologies

Benkler and Zittrain

There was an interesting conversation at the end of the day on the failings of academe to provide meaningful innovations compared to markets -- especially in the areas of social medias. This turned into a more general conversation about the relationship of science (especially in the academy) and technology (especially in industry).

In my opinion, the core book on this subject is Pasteur's Quadrant by Stokes -- which also refers to a more widely used metaphor.

More succinctly, Harvey Brooks provides a great high-level review to Jonathan's provocation with a summary of the key ways that science facilitates industrial technology. I've written up a a bullet list in an AcaWiki summary of the article.

But even if we just look a the direct relationship, there's still a strong argument for academic science. Edwin Mansfield did a bunch of empirical studies (e.g., [1], [2]) on industrial innovation's very direct connections to academic work. His basic conclusion is that a big chunk of innovations (10% at a minimum) could not have been completed without major delay without academic research.

Feel free to copy any of this over onto the main page. My account doesn't have permission to edit it. :-( --Benjamin Mako Hill 21:53, 8 September 2011 (UTC)