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September 14, 2004
Utopian Entrepreneur
| Title | Utopian Entrepreneur | |
| Author | Brenda Laurel | |
| Publisher | MIT Press, Cambridge, MA (Mediawork Pamphlet Series). | |
| Date | 2001 | |
| ISBN | 0-262-62153-3 | |
| Reviewed by | Jane Szita | |
| Silicon Valley veteran and techno-humanist Brenda Laurel — aided and abetted by designer Denise Gonzales Crisp — cleverly combines several genres in this slim, but impressive, publication. Partly a confession (“I was a Utopian entrepreneur. . . ” ) of her own experience in setting up Purple Moon (a company making computer games for girls), partly a McLuhanesque polemic on the existing economic and business status quo, and partly a handbook for doing business in socially positive ways, the book avoids abstraction by staying thoroughly grounded in Brenda Laurel’s own down-to-earth way of seeing the world. The result is genuinely touching, both funny and sad. It also seems destined to become an important source for future historians studying the dot.com boom and bust. Describing the failure of Purple Moon, she writes: “Here’s one of the perversities of dot-capitalism: if Purple Moon had not actually produced any real products, I’d probably be ‘post-economic’ today. Just as the dot-economy started spinning straw into gold, Purple Moon was spending real money to make real products to go onto real shelves in real stores. In investment terms, that was a big mistake.” Subsequently, Purple Moon was bought for a pittance by Mattel, but Laurel emerged stronger and wiser for the experience, with a mission to transform the way we see making money through technology. Ultimately, what actually happened to Purple Moon was less important than the script for utopian entrepreneurism which Brenda Laurel devised from the experience. The crucible of failure has allowed her to forge a compelling theory. As she writes herself, “Stories are tools for knowing and judging. Change the stories, and you change how people live.” | ||
Posted by Books Editor at September 14, 2004 09:33 PM