Makers by Cory Doctrow (author of Little Brotherand Eastern Standard Tribe and co-editor of the Boing Boing website) is almost a pre-history of Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age (exploring the history surrounding the creation of the Matter Compiler).  Or it’s a political screed on the virtues of free access to intellectual property.  But either way, it’s a quick fun read, although a generally mediocre book.

Our story starts with Suzanne (heroic tech reporter) who is in Detroit, for some reason, covering the merger of Kodak and Duracell (Kodacell). The new CEO, Landon Kettlewell, is planning on getting Kodacell out of their existing business (which makes products no one buys any more) and investing it into a bunch of startup companies/inventors. Suzanne attracts Kettlewell’s eye and he offers her access to one of the groups, so she can cover it. In Florida, Suzanne meets a pair of tinkerers, Perry and Lester, who work on inventing something new (usually out of something discarded) and riding it for a few months until the margins shrink (because Russia or Brazil find a cheaper way to do it) and then move onto something new. This process sweeps across the nation and is labeled New Work.

Then we move to part 2 and New Work has fizzled out and Landon Kettlewell is being pushed out as CEO. There is no explanation about why or how New Work died, it’s just a given. The rest of the book follows these people as they move forward creating new industries, watching them destruct and then trying to find a way out of it. There is a subplot about Disney World and an open source ride that Lestera and Perry put together (and the lawsuit hijinks that ensue). The plot is basically open source good, closed source bad. And the book ends with a technology process deus-ex-machina.

There are technological inventions and process thrown around, biological hacking (some of which cause problems later in life) and a lawsuit industry (but not exactly the way you think of it). But the overarching theme of the book is open source good, closed source bad. There are swipes at DRM, closed processes and big corporations, with the heroes always for open source and processes (but never any thought to security).

Makers isn’t a bad book. It’s a quick read and a fun ride. But I felt like I was reading an open source manifesto rather than a peek at the future. Mildly recommended.