Smart:Enquête sur les internets

by Frédéric Martel‏

Digitization is accelerating globalization tenfold. Social networks have gone mobile: telephone, television and towns have gone 'smart'. How did China manage to create clones of Google, Facebook and YouTube, and build its own censored version of the Internet? How do Arab countries use social networks for their revolutions? Why is there no minister for communications in the US, and why does no one regulate the Internet there? From Silicon Valley to Tokyo, from South Africa to southern India, and all the way to Cuba and Gaza, this unprecedented investigation in the field covers the whole battle of the Internet and its future. Drawing on hundreds of interviews in about fifty countries, Frederic Martel examines the different 'Internets' on five continents. In so doing, he reveals that we are moving not only into a connected, globalized world, but also a territorialized one. Smart shows that the Internet has never been truly global, and that it will become increasingly local.

Genres: Nonfiction

406 pages, Paperback

First published April 23, 2014

About the author

Frédéric Martel holds a PhD in social sciences and several graduate degrees in philosophy, political science and law. After being project manager for the French Embassy in Romania (1990–1992) and the French ministry of culture (1992); and being advisor to the former Prime Minister Michel Rocard (1993–1994), he served the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, deputy-Prime minister Martine Aubry, as one of her political senior advisors (1997–2000). From 2001 to 2005 he was cultural attaché for the French embassy in the US. He has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University and New York University (2004–2006). He wrote, or currently writes, for numerous publications (including Magazine Littéraire, L'Express, Dissent, The Nation and Slate) and produces its own radio show, "Soft Power", a weekly live talk show on the entertainment, the medias and "the internets" for the French national public radio station France Culture. He is also editor in chief of the Internet-based cultural magazine nonfiction.fr and a columnist at Slate.

Additionally, he has had high-level academic activities by giving conferences in major American universities (such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Berkeley and the MIT), universities in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Hong Kong, China, Japan, India, Egypt (and dozens others countries) and by teaching, from 2005 to 2014, at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (also known as Sciences Po Paris) and at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Paris (also known as HEC Paris). In 2008–2010 he was a researcher for the French Foreign Affairs' Analysis and Forecasting Centre and he founded the research web site of the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel concerning creative industries and medias around the world.

From 2012 to 2013, he was a senior researcher at IRIS, Institut de Relations Internationales & Stratégiques. Since 2014, he is a senior researcher on culture and the internet at ZHdK University in Zurich (Switzerland).

Reviews

[The_creeper02 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una excelente investiagacion acerca de internet en el mundo, tanto de como funciona en paises que vivien en dictaduras, tanto en paises libres, paises de primer y tercer mundo, tambien habla de la libertad de expresion y de como los medios se han tenido que adaptar a, en ese ent0nces, nuevo medio, y como las pesonas se adaptan al medio dependiendo de sus condiciones y culturas, tambien tiene una buena parte dedicada a como estados unidos regula internet y de como buscan solucionar el problema de la privaciad, tanto por las empresas que controlan el mercado de las comunicaciones como las que manejan las redes y el software, y muchas cosas mas, es excelente pero siento que envejecio un poco mal, aunque tambien predice muchas cosas como "el streaming" generalizado y de como la mayoria de cosas pasaron de ser un "producto" a un "servicio", como dije antes es un muy buen libro pero puede que si lo empiezas a leer encontraras un par de cosas desactualizadas.

[k r i s t i a n · Rating 4 out of 5]

Está muy bien, bien documentado y no deja rincón del planeta por explorar y explicar la influencia de Internet allí. El único problema es lo leí demasiado tarde, muchas cosas quedaron viejas, pero bueno, es culpa mía.

[Alejandro · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly rich source of information to discover how Internet has impacted life in very different and distant points around the world. It fills a very big gap to explain how is internet used in real life. Ranging from government officials, corporate executives, and ordinary people, interviews combined with context descriptions provide a solid and comprehensive description of every country (and at times city) the author visits. Still very up-to-date, it is a perfect introduction and overview of the internet state of the art and future.
A detail concerning the spanish edition of this work is the rather poor translation from french, which I would like to believe was allowed for the sake of a fast release. Words like comporter, système d'exploitation, localisation, lecture and others can even lead to confusing paragraphs and continous disappointments to say the least. Hope this is kept in mind when translating this book into English.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Il n'existe pas 'un Internet' mais 'des Internets'. Voilà la thèse que va démontrer fort habilement F. Martel à travers ses voyages et ses rencontres dans une cinquantaine de pays. Oui, Internet est 'global' (en) mais l'utilisation que l'on va en faire va être communautaire. Rarement l'utilise-t-on de façon vraiment 'global' (en).

Ce livre-enquête est fascinant et facile à lire. Un must.

[Dosgallos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una investigación imperdible para entender los nuevos territorios artificiales y líquidos que genera internet transformando los entornos digitales en regiones necesarias por lengua, geografía y valores compartidos. Internet se fragmenta en muchos internet(s). Martel revitaliza el concepto de la aldea global de McLuhan.