These are books (and other various media) I’ve found invaluable throughout the years. Much of what I’ve gotten right is because of the folks who wrote these. All of what I’ve gotten wrong has been my own.
Being Digital, by Nicholas Negroponte: This groundbreaking work by the director of the M.I.T. Media Lab chronicles the cultural shift brought upon by digital systems becoming commonplace.
Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, By Larry Lessig: This work compares elements of Code in a digital world to Speech in a physical world.
Convergence Culture, by Henry Jenkins: I had the pleasure of editing a few early essays Henry wrote while I was at MIT’s Technology Review that became part of this seminal work that explains the essence of transmedia storytelling.
Copy Fights, by Adam Thierer (editor) and Clyde Wayne Crews Jr (editor):
The Cluetrain Manifesto, by Rick Levine, David Weinberger, Doc Searls, and Christopher Locke: This books explains the conversational nature of the Web.
Crypto, by Steven Levy: This book follows the race by mathematicians to unlock the secrets of cryptography.
The Cult of the Amateur (and Larry Lessig’s corrections to Keen’s observations), by Andrew Keen: A rather ill-informed counter-point to arguments made my Lessig and others about the importance of amateur culture in the creative sector.
Dungeons and Dreamers, by Brad King and John Borland: My co-author and I chronicled the people who created the virtual environments that now dominate our playscape.
Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers, by Henry Jenkins:
Free as in Freedom, by Sam Williams: The biography of Richard Stallman, the MIT programmer behind the Free Software Movement.
The Foundation Series (fiction), by Isaac Asimov:
The Future of Ideas, by Larry Lessig: An examination of how copyright and intellectual property laws are stifling the artistic and creative expression of digital culture.
Geeks, by Jon Katz: The story of how early Web culture helped two boys survive a post-Columbine world.
Groundswell, by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff: A series of case studies that explore how companies should — and are — using social technologies to connect with their consumers.
The Hacker Crackdown, by Bruce Sterling: A chronicle of Operation Phoenix, the FBI’s nation-wide crackdown on hacker culture in the 1990s.
Hackers, By Steven Levy: The definitive story of the people who created — out of nothing — the world of software.
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series (fiction), by Douglas Adams:
Life on the Screen, by Sherry Turkle;
The Making of Second Life, Wagner James Au:
Masters of Doom, by David Kushner: The story of John Carmack and John Romero, the skill and brains behind the Doom franchise.
Mediactive, by Dan Gillmor: An examination of digital literacies and the future of journalism education.
The New, New Thing, by Michael Lewis: A chronicle of serial entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley.
Neuromancer (fiction), by William Gibson:
Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good, by Sarah Lacy:
The Pattern on the Stone, by Daniel Hillis:
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, by Joe Trippi: The story of the Howard Dean campaign, the first to deploy social technologies as part of its main strategy.
Small Pieces, Loosely Joined, by David Weinberger:
Smart Mobs, by Howard Rheingold:
Snow Crash (fiction), by Neal Stephensen:
The State of Play, by Beth Noveck (editor) and Jack Balkin (editor):
SXSW Interactive (conference)
Textual Poachers, by Henry Jenkins:
We the Media, by Dan Gillmor: A chronicle of the nascent stages of the Citizen Journalism movement.
Web 2.0 Expo (conference)
The Well, by Katie Hafner:
Where Wizards Stay Up Late, by Katie Hafner:
The Wisdom of Crowds, by James Surowieki: An examination of how to deploy systems to collect information from seeming chaos.
The Virtual Community, by Howard Rheingold:
The War of Desire and Technology at the End of the Mechanical Age, by Allucquere Rosanne Stone:
Zork (text adventure)