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Read, write, own

Brandon Donnelly avatar Brandon Donnelly
Cover image for Read, write, own

I have been following Chris Dixon for many years and, yesterday, I learned that he has written a new book called, Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet . It is a book about web3 (crypto things) and the title is based on thinking about the evolution of the internet in terms of these three phases :

The first act, called the “read era”, circa 1990-2005, democratized information. Anyone could type a few words into a browser and read about almost any topic through websites.

The second act, the “read-write era”, roughly 2006-2020, democratized publishing. Anyone could write and publish to mass audiences on social networks and other services through posts.

The third act, the “read-write-own era”, 2020-present, is democratizing ownership. Anyone can become a stakeholder in a digital service or network, gaining power, governance rights, and economic upside previously reserved for only a small number of corporate affiliates, like stockholders and employees.

The book won't be out until March 2024, but if you're interested, maybe you want to pre-order it or at least get it on your radar. I immediately put this in my queue and I'm looking forward to welcoming it to the pile of books next to my bed.

Full disclosure: I don't get anything if you pre-order this book. I'm only putting this out there because I have a high degree of conviction about this coming shift and because, in the future, I want to be able to look back at posts like this one here. I think they'll age well.

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Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.