The Internet is portrayed in this book as three spaces: the space of state, the space of the market, and a third space called the digital commons. The digital commons is asserted to be more than a separate, well-defined zone. It is seen as a lively, public Internet culture that is in the making, free of governance and agency, representing no one and everyone, and recovering a domain that never existed in Internet history. In the digital commons, there can only be designs, concepts, essays, versions, and requests for comment.

This book will be seminal for free thinkers. There could be future research projects inspired by it, with concrete data either supporting or refuting the digital commons. The author definitely does not think the time for the digital commons on the Internet has come and gone, however, he does present a perspective where the market and state spaces are squeezing the digital commons out of the Internet. The book’s base of perspective is the discipline of media studies.

Dark fiber refers to unused fiber-optic cable. Dark fiber can be leased to individuals and companies who want to establish optical connections among their own locations. This dark fiber is neither controlled by, nor connected to, the provider of the dark fiber. Instead, the companies or individuals who are leasing it provide the necessary components to make it functional. I think the author is claiming an analogy between the digital commons and the dark fiber, and maybe claiming that the state and market are the providers of the fiber.

The book’s contents are organized into eight sections, starting with an introductory section containing acknowledgements and introduction. The remaining seven sections are: “Theory,” “Case Studies,” “Crystals of Net Criticism,” “Travelogues,” “Dynamics of Net Culture,” “Reality Check,” and “Towards a Political Economy.” There is a bibliography, consisting mainly of people’s names and their books, with a few papers mixed in. There are no uniform resource locators (URLs) in the bibliography, but many are embedded in the text of the different sections. These URLs are a source of a lot of perspective and background for the book. There is no index. This is a distinct disadvantage when getting back to the nuggets after reading the book.

Each of the sections in the book is made up of texts that appeared in earlier editions of mailing lists and Web sites (namely, nettime and Telepolis). The author regards the book as a collective body of knowledge, which it is. It is probably clear what the “Theory” and “Case Studies” sections are about. The “Travelogues” section discusses some influential events contributing to Internet history (Albania, Taiwan earthquakes, and Sarai, an Indian media center). “Dynamics of Net Culture” contributes some details on the digital commons (more of which is needed). “Reality Check” contributes ideas on nongovernmental organizations (NGO’s), Adilkno (the Dutch Foundation for the Advancement of Illegal Knowledge), and other nonstate and nonmarket organizations in Internet history. “Towards a Political Economy” provides some understanding of the author’s dark fiber analogy in the stagnation after the dot-com mania.

The book achieves its goal of being a contribution to the history of Internet ideas. Current events, triggered by the proponents of the state-controlled Internet and the market-controlled Internet, or by the collusion of the two, are now evident in the press every day. One can understand the dark fiber of the author’s analogy.