ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the underlying dynamics of a new digital mode of production and interrogates the technological and economic principles on which it is based. The internet is the backbone of, or the infrastructure for, economic transactions but the very oxygen that allows us to innovate, collaborate, produce, exchange and consume goods and services. The chapter provides the digital DNA of an informational system that is set to be exponentially more dynamic and productive than the analogue system it supersedes. Former United States (US) vice-president Al Gore concurs that the internet has spawned novel types of capital flow and consumer markets and that we are witnessing the explosive growth of new business models, social organizations and patterns of behaviour that would have been unimaginable before the Internet and computing'. The digital media economy, in particular, profits from the increasing amount of unpaid labour, otherwise known as user-generated content', facilitated by the falling costs of smart phones and cameras.
