Yochai Benkler Quotes

The Internet can bring us much closer to the developed world.

The Internet removed geography as a significant obstacle that formerly prevented out-of-the-way places from being active players in the New Economy.

In the early '90s, well under 5 percent of the global population was online.

We like to think of the Internet as a border-busting technology.

In the space of one lifetime, the Internet has opened up opportunities that were previously inconceivable.

We are effectively living in a world of communications and information abundance.

In theory, the Internet should bring us all closer together and slowly eliminate our differences.

The explosion in access to mobile phones and digital services means that people everywhere are contributing vast amounts of information to the global knowledge warehouse. Moreover, they are doing so for free, just by communicating, buying and selling goods and going about their daily lives.

People can get information - on entertainment, politics, finance - much easier than before. That will change the way people do business, the way people live.

What the Internet has done is it has decentralised power.

News and images move so easily across borders that attitudes and aspirations are no longer especially national. Cyber-weapons, no longer the exclusive province of national governments, can originate in a hacker's garage.

The Internet is the most important single development in the history of human communication since the invention of call waiting.

I think the Internet and technology in general has changed everything. We can see it overseas even more with the Arab Spring and so forth.

Countries that have the Internet already are not going to turn it off. And so the power of freedom, the power of ideas will spread, and it will change those societies in very dramatic ways.

The PC has improved the world in just about every area you can think of. Amazing developments in communications, collaboration and efficiencies. New kinds of entertainment and social media. Access to information and the ability to give a voice people who would never have been heard.

We live in an age of instant knowledge. And there's almost a sense of entitlement to that.

People always ask me if I could live in any other era what would it be, and I tell them none! I feel so lucky to live in an age where technology has changed and continues to change and make life so much more exciting. It keeps everyone young and constantly learning new things.

Our working hypothesis is that the status of knowledge is altered as societies enter what is known as the postindustrial age and cultures enter what is known as the postmodern age.

This is a very different world. Much of it is new. What has happened is that information technology has politicized the world…It’s a world where most of the big problems spill over national boundaries.

The global economy and its technologies can be hugely liberating for those in a position to take advantage of them.

With the Internet, information is knowledge and knowledge is freedom.

We changed the world many ways with the Internet.

It is the Internet that changes: the Internet is not just a language; it modifies relationships, the way we look at the world.

The Internet is a global resource that does not belong to any one nation or alliance. It has contributed to amazing economic growth, collaboration, civil education, and awe-inspiring lifestyle improvements for billions of people.

More and more of the world's population is gaining access to the same kind of computing power and connectivity that has transformed daily life for developed nations.