Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Is there a replacement for "Information Rules"?

Is there a worthy replacement for the book "Information Rules" by Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian (Shapiro & Varian, 2001)?

I feel the subject matter gathered under the old Information Rules books is now scattered among a variety specialised fields which I'll generalise under "techniques and models for design, utilisation and pricing of digital goods, high-tech products and services."

The product management perspective typified by Marty Cagan's Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love (Cagan, 2008).

Oz Shy's books How to Price: A Guide to Pricing Techniques and Yield Management (Shy, 2008) and The Economics of Network Industries (Shy, 2001) are excellent introductions to the econometrics of high tech goods and services. While not 'hard-core' econometrics they still pose a challenge to graduate students without a background in the economics theory.

Yochai Benckler's The Wealth of Networks (Benckler, 2006) (link to the open source book in PDF) touches on some of the themes in IR but focuses mainly on the political and policy implications of open source, gift economies and radical strands in network and freedom discourse.

In the design space I see two strands that overlap with IR's scope somewhat: ludic theory or gamification, and information design. The first could be typified by Jesse Schell's The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses (Schell, 2008), the second typified by a kind of 'hands-on' hacking attitude evident in communities centered on Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and installation/art/information tools like Processing.

Getting Started with Processing

Form+Code in Design, Art, and Architecture (Design Briefs)

A Touch of Code: Interactive Installations and Experiences