The Internet came about with the intent to survive major disasters, including war, disruptions, and system failures. Last week the world found out what it means when 8.5 million components of this Internet cease to function due to a flawed software update from a centralized entity in a once mostly decentralized world, thereby impacting critical infranstructure such as travel, hospitals, emergency services, banking, and more. This book "Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet" helps us realize how far the Internet has come from the days of inception, how intertwined we are with it in our daily lives, and how we might shape its future and ours.

Author Chris Dixon retraces the history of the Internet through the lens of three phases of development that he calls "Read. Write. Own," and makes projections for the future. For those who have experienced the early stages of the Internet, they will appreciate the recall of those times. For those who haven't, they will appreciate the anecdotes from those pioneer times. Both groups will enjoy reading about musings for a hopefully better future.

This 320-page book is divided into five parts and fourteen numbered chapters. Chapters are subdivided into named sections. Throughout the book, you will find the occasional black-and-white diagram or table. A roadmap in the beginning of the book helps the reader understand the flow of the book. A set of notes, which are not listed in the text itself, is grouped by chapter at the end of the book, plus a keyword-based index. The notes are mostly references to news articles or web links to support the author's points. The book is written in a more popular science or business style rather than in a rigorous scientific manner. In that form, it conveys the message well at that level, always with a first-person "voice" of the sole author.

An introduction sets the stage for the book, providing more background on the author and their viewpoints, as well as a roadmap for the book.

Part One "Read. Write." delves into the history of the Internet in three chapters. It shows the transition of a research-based Internet based on network and application protocols and free exchange into a corporate-dominated by the big Internet companies such as Google, Microsoft, or Meta. This covers predominantly the era of the 1990s and 2000s, with a slow monopolization of services by the big Internet companies.

Part Two "Own" describes the advent of blockchain in three chapters, with a new computing paradigm and a renewed opportunity for a decentralized approach. It also covers tokens and blockchain networks, and digital ownership, from both a technical and economic perspectives.

Part Three "A New Era" shows the empowerment of the user by blockchain networks in five chapters. Topics such as community-based software, take rates, building networks with token incentives, "tokenomics," and network governance get discussed here.

Part Four "Here and Now" addresses controversial topics in one chapter, such as regulatory issues and the so-called casino culture that sees cryptocurrencies and blockchains as gambling objects.

Part Five "What's Next" has the author touch upon topics such as social networks, video games, virtual worlds, and artificial intelligence, with the lens of blockchain networks in two chapters. The idea is that those technologies could enable users to regain ownership lost to the centralized and corporatized world the Internet has become.

A Conclusion attempts to put a positive spin on the status quo. It outlines the opportunities that users have and should empower them to take the Internet in the direction they want, possibly to regain more ownership with the tools at their disposal.

Overall the book is aimed at industry practitioners in technology, e-commerce, and online marketplaces, as well as tech-curious business users. Chris Dixon has put his heart and soul into this book, sharing his experiences in working in this field as part of the investor role he plays in the blockchain and cryptocurrency domains, among others.

This book was entertaining and light summer reading. Through the anecdotes it brought back many memories of the earlier days of the Internet as well as the early days of blockchain. I enjoyed reading this book. It will find its proper place on my bookshelves.

Sven Dietrich reviews technology and security books for IEEE Cipher. He welcomes your thoughts at spock at ieee dot org