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How the Internet Became Commercial | Shane Greenstein | Talks at Google

3,917 views · Published 10 December 2015 · 45:01 · Indexed 26 October 2026

Channel: Talks at Google · 2015 · Education

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Economist Shane Greenstein visited Google's office in Cambridge, MA to discuss his book, "How the Internet Became Commercial: Innovation, Privatization, and the Birth of a New Network".

In less than a decade, the Internet went from being a series of loosely connected networks used by universities and the military to the powerful commercial engine it is today. This book describes how many of the key innovations that made this possible came from entrepreneurs and iconoclasts who were outside the mainstream -- and how the commercialization of the Internet was by no means a foregone conclusion at its outset.

Shane Greenstein is the MBA Class of 1957 Professor of Business Administration. He is a leading researcher in the business economics of computing, communications, and Internet infrastructure. His research and writing focus on a variety of topics in this area, including the adoption of client-server systems, the growth of commercial Internet access networks, the industrial economics of platforms, and changes in communications policy.

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