Many commentators have drawn parall

Many commentators have drawn parallels between the expansion of IT, particularly the Internet, and the rollouts of earlier technologies. Most of the comparisons, though, have focused on either the investment pattern associated with the technologies the boom-to-bust cycle or the technologies’ roles in reshaping the operations of entire industries or even economies. Little has
rights to a new packaging material that gives its product a longer shelf life than competing brands. As long as they re- main protected, proprietary technologies can be the foundations for longterm strategic advantages, enabling companies to reap higher profits than their rivals.
Infrastructural technologies, in contrast, offer far more value when shared than when used in isolation. Imagine yourself in the early nineteenth century, and suppose that one manufacturing company held the rights to all the technology required to create a railroad. If it wanted to, that company could just build proprietary lines between its suppliers, its factories, and its distributors and run its own locomotives and railcars on the tracks. And it might well operate more efficiently as a result. But, for the broader economy, the value produced