Ambient Commons

Malcolm McCullough conducts a deep and broad exploration into a territory that was once imaginary, but is now part of everyday life. The latest news and disinfotainment is available on high-definition, stadium-sized screens on public buildings and on handheld gizmos that know where you are and who you are and that broadcast as well as receive. Ambient Commons is a call to become more mindful about the way our attention encounters the environment and about the way environments influence attention—and a sourcebook for those who want to take more control of the process.

Howard Rheingold, author of Net Smart, Tools for Thought, The Virtual Community, and Smart Mobs

Malcolm McCullough's book is to information what Central Park is to Manhattan—a place of reflection and circumspection that reveals helpfully the contours of the world we have constructed and hopefully an outline of the world we should build, the ambient commons.

Albert Borgmann, author of Real American Ethics and Holding On to Reality

Ambient Commons is a timely wake-up call and a hugely valuable guidebook to the new post-'digital' landscape of contemporary urban culture. McCullough demonstrates how important it is that we understand technology as culture, and that it is worthy of philosophical inquiry. He conveys these complex ideas so that they feel accessible, yet are rigorously researched and instantly appealing. It is also, unlike most texts that pivot around technology, beautifully written.

Dan Hill, Fabrica

Ambient Commons is quiet, patient and profound; through 12 pithy chapters, it asks us to ponder information contexts.

Times Higher Education

Ambient Commons sizzles with provocative ideas: attention theft, right to undisrupted attention, peak distraction. It's a call for responsible urbanism.... Given the recent hype about the rise of the 'smart city'—courtesy of large technology companies pitching solutions to innovaton-hungry mayors—McCullough's advocacy of technologically mediated but humane urbanism is timely.

Evgeny Morozov

The New Yorker

The book is both a delight to read and a call to action in two ways. Civilized human beings need to disengage from their glowing rectangles and appreciate the world around us, and design professionals need to pay attention to the information content of our environment.

User Experience Magazine