Innovators of all stripes—such as Airbnb and Uber—are increasingly using new technological capabilities to circumvent traditional regulatory systems, or at least put pressure on public policymakers to reform laws and regulations that are outmoded, inefficient, or illogical. Disruptive innovators are emerging in other fields, too, using technologies as wide‐​ranging as 3D printers, drones, driverless cars, Bitcoin and blockchain, virtual reality, the “Internet of Things,” and more. Some of these innovators just love to tinker. Others want to change the world with new life‐​enriching products. And many more are just looking to earn a living and support their families. Regardless of why they are doing it, these evasive entrepreneurs— innovators who don’t always conform to social or legal norms—are changing the world and challenging their governments. Beyond boosting economic growth and raising our living standards, evasive entrepreneurialism can play an important role in constraining unaccountable governmental activities that often fail to reflect common sense or the consent of the governed. In essence, evasive entrepreneurialism and technological civil disobedience are new checks and balances that help us rein in the excesses of the state, make government more transparent and accountable, and ensure that our civil rights and economic liberties are respected. Evasive Entrepreneurs and the Future of Governance explores why evasive entrepreneurs are increasingly engaged in different forms of technological civil disobedience and also makes the case that we should accept—and often even embrace—a certain amount of that activity as a way to foster innovation, economic growth, and accountable government.

Will innovators be forced to seek the blessing of public officials before they develop and deploy new devices and services, or will they be generally left free to experiment with new technologies and business models? In this book, Adam Thierer argues that if the former disposition, “the precautionary principle,” trumps the latter, “permissionless innovation,” the result will be fewer services, lower-quality goods, higher prices, diminished economic growth, and a decline in the overall standard of living. When public policy is shaped by “precautionary principle” reasoning, it poses a serious threat to technological progress, economic entrepreneurialism, and long-run prosperity. By contrast, permissionless innovation has fueled the success of the Internet and much of the modern tech economy in recent years, and it is set to power the next great industrial revolution—if we let it.

Online user privacy is a delicate issue that has been unfortunately overlooked by technology corporations and especially the public since the birth of the internet. Many online businesses and services such as web search engines, retailers, and social network sites exploit user data for profit. There is a misconception among people about the term “privacy.” Usually, people think that privacy is the ability of an individual to isolate themselves or that it is a person’s right to control access to their personal information. However, privacy is not just about revealing secret information; it also includes exploiting user personal data, as the exploitation of personal data may lead to disastrous consequences. Protecting User Privacy in Web Search Utilization presents both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary works on questions related to experiences and phenomena that can or could be covered by concepts regarding the protection and privacy of web service users. It further highlights the importance of web search privacy to the readers and educates them about recent developments in the field. Covering topics such as AI-based intrusion detection, desktop search engines, and privacy risks, this premier reference source is an essential resource for students and educators of higher education, data experts, privacy professionals and engineers, IT managers, software developers, government officials, archivists and librarians, privacy rights activists, researchers, and academicians.

This book examines contemporary policy debates from opposing perspectives. It considers seven key topics in today’s society: land use, education, international trade, health insurance, technological change, and recreational alcohol and drugs. Two scholars with differing viewpoints discuss each topic, one working in the classical liberal tradition and the other advocating slower, incremental societal change. While classical liberalism historically presents a vision of society comprised of free and responsible individuals, this book shows the importance of considering the nuances of this vision today. Beyond theoretical regulation vs. de-regulation debates, the book highlights challenges for classical liberals by considering how dynamism and creative destruction may disrupt communities, leading to worse outcomes for some groups. This edited volume aims to deepen understanding of this challenge to a free society and partake in and encourage civil intellectual discourse and debate. It will interest students and scholars from various fields, including economics, political science, public health, and environmental studies.

Transform your nonprofit’s ability to innovate for the future In Innovation for Social Change, distinguished author Leah Kral delivers a practical manual for nonprofits and charitable organizations seeking to innovate their way toward new and exciting possibilities. In the book, you’ll explore hands-on design thinking strategies and techniques you can use as a disciplined process for exploring what’s possible in your organization. You’ll learn how to identify hidden needs, deal with the knock-on effects of your ideas, and focus your efforts where they can have the most impact. You’ll also discover how to transform your ideas into action, building small experiments and learning from them before scaling them up organization-wide, and how to create an ecosystem for everyday innovation. Finally, the author explains what we can learn from social entrepreneurs as they boldly challenge the status quo. The book also includes: Six basic and mutually reinforcing principles that will help you become more innovative today Instructive and engaging case studies from nonprofits with a variety of missions, visions, and political backgrounds Strategies for applying straightforward principles from economics to supercharge nonprofit innovation A can’t-miss roadmap to creative innovation, Innovation for Social Change will earn a place in the libraries of nonprofit board members, managers, fundraisers, and other professionals in the charitable space.

Solve the world’s biggest problems and create a better future In Building Moonshots: 50+ Ways to To Turn Radical Ideas Into Reality, a team of expert innovation strategists delivers an exciting and insightful collection of strategies, techniques, and frameworks for scaling your next big, audacious idea into a concrete product or service. Each proven and tested strategy contained in the book has been categorized to make it easy to find and implement when you need it most. You’ll learn how and where to start, when to bet big, how to invest, when to play the long game, what to communicate, and much more. You’ll also find: Ways to go beyond white papers and vision statements to a place where your ideas become a tangible reality Strategies for creating a better future by transforming seemingly impossible ideas into concrete products Methods for bringing to life radical and innovative solutions to the world’s greatest challenges Destined to become the seminal, go-to source for visionaries, gamechangers, and leaders imagining the apparently impossible and determined to achieve it, Building Moonshots is a can’t-miss book for entrepreneurs, founders, product development heads, and other business leaders.

Social movements have been implicated in long-term societal transformations, helping bring about political democratization, economic freedom, and social equality. In recent years, movements such as Occupy Wall Street, the Arab Spring, and Black Lives Matter have organized protests, and other contentious activities, against varied injustices in the world today. But what are social movements, how do they work, and what are their impacts upon society? In this landmark contribution, social movement activities and outcomes are understood through the lens of liberal political economy. This approach emphasizes dynamic collective choices within multi-faceted economic, political, and social environments, with the capacity for such choices to promote freedom, equality, and dignity. Inspired by the works of Friedrich Hayek, Elinor and Vincent Ostrom, and James Buchanan, Freedom in Contention illustrates how social movements fluidly organize in often repressive environments, bringing people together in their efforts to audaciously challenge public power and other forms of authority. Using historical and contemporary case studies, this book reveals how advances in human liberty are shaped by the struggles of social movement activists to have their concerns heard and respected. This important book will appeal to social scientists, decision-makers, and people interested in how social movements affect our lives.

In this paper entrepreneurs are defined as agents who bring about economic change by combining their own effort with other factors of production in search of economic rents. The institutional setup is argued to determine both the supply and direction of entrepreneurial activity. Four key institutions are explored more closely: property rights protection, savings policies, taxation and the regulation of labor markets. Institutions have far-reaching effects on entrepreneurship, and they largely determine whether or not entrepreneurial activity will be socially productive. Due to the responsiveness of entrepreneurship to the institutional setup it is maintained that in-depth analyses of specific institutions are required in order to further our understanding of the determinants of entrepreneurial behavior and the economic effects of entrepreneurship. The paper also demonstrates that it is problematic to use self-employment as an empirical proxy for productive entrepreneurship.

The book makes the case for embracing evasive entrepreneurs and the freedom to innovative more generally because of the many benefits that individuals, society, and even governments derive from acts of technological creativity.

The federal government is running huge budget deficits, spending too much, and heading toward a financial crisis. Federal spending soared under President George W. Bush, and the costs of programs for the elderly are set to balloon in coming years. Hurricane Katrina has made the federal budget situation even more desperate. In Downsizing the Federal Government Cato Institute budget expert Chris Edwards provides policymakers with solutions to the growing federal budget mess. Edwards identifies more than 100 federal programs that should be terminated, transferred to the states, or privatized in order to balance the budget and save hundreds of billions of dollars. Edwards proposes a balanced reform package of cuts to entitlements, domestic programs, and excess defense spending. He argues that these cuts would not only eliminate the deficit, but also strengthen the economy, enlarge personal freedom, and leave a positive fiscal legacy for the next generation. Downsizing the Federal Government discusses the systematic causes of wasteful spending, and it overflows with examples of federal programs that are obsolete and mismanaged. The book examines the budget process and shows how policymakers act contrary to the interests of average Americans by favoring special interests.