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Andrew Odlyzko: Papers on Research, Technology, and Society

Some underestimated benefits of the cryptocurrency mania, A. Odlyzko. ACM Ubiquity, October 2025, pp. 1-8. [online journal version]
Trust in science and mathematics, J. Johnson and A. Odlyzko. ACM Ubiquity, June 2022, pp. 1-9. [online journal version]
Cybersecurity is not very important, A. Odlyzko. ACM Ubiquity, June 2019, pp. 1-23. [online journal version] [preprint, PDF]
In praise of spaghetti code, A. Odlyzko. ACM Ubiquity blog, June 2017. [online Ubiquity version]
The glorious promise of the post-truth world, A. Odlyzko. ACM Ubiquity, March 2017. [online journal version]
Open Access and the evolution of scholarly communication, A. Odlyzko. Newsletter of the European Mathematical Society, no. 91, March 2014, pp. 41-42. [preprint, text] [entire issue, online
Are libraries and Open Access becoming irrelevant?, A. Odlyzko. Notices of the American Mathematical Society, vol. 61, no. 4, April 2014, 00. 390-392. [online version]
Open Access, library and publisher competition, and the evolution of general commerce, A. Odlyzko. Evaluation Review, vol. 39, no. 1, Feb. 2015, pp. 130-163. [preprint, PDF] [online journal version]
Web history and economics, A. Odlyzko. Computer Networks, vol. 56, no. 18, 2012, pp. 3886-3890. [preprint, PDF]
Charles Mackay's own extraordinary popular delusions and the Railway Mania, A. Odlyzko. [PDF]
Neutrality and non-neutrality, from the past to the future, A. Odlyzko. Intermedia, vol. 39, no. 1, March 2011, pp. 4-6. [text]
The manifold problems of technology forecasting, A. Odlyzko. Phi Beta Kappa Key Reporter, Fall 2010, p. 7. [Key Reporter online version] [preprint, txt]
Bubbles, gullibility, and other challenges for economics, psychology, sociology, and information sciences, A. Odlyzko. First Monday, vol. 15, no. 9, Sept. 2010. [PDF] [First Monday version]
This time is different: An example of a giant, wildly speculative, and successful investment mania, A. Odlyzko. B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, vol. 10, issue 1, 2010, article 60. [BEJEAP version] [preprint, PDF]
Collective hallucinations and inefficient markets: The British Railway Mania of the 1840s, A. Odlyzko. [PDF] [PRC, for Kindle and related devices]
Providing security with insecure systems, A. Odlyzko. Extended abstract. WiSec'10: Proceedings of the Third ACM Conference on Wireless Network Security, ACM, 2010, pp. 87-88. [PDF]
Social networks and mathematical models: A research commentary on `Critical mass and willingness to pay for social networks' by J. Christopher Westland, A. Odlyzko. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, vol. 9, 2010, pp. 26-28. [PDF]
Technology predictions: Intelligence and brute force, A. Odlyzko. ON Magazine, No. 4, 2009, pp. 48-50. [text] [ON Magazine issue]
The Internet's role in aggravating and alleviating the energy crises, A. Odlyzko. Internet Evolution, April 8, 2008. [extended preprint, text] [Internet Evolution version at Wayback Machine]
Network neutrality, search neutrality, and the never-ending conflict between efficiency and fairness in markets, A. Odlyzko. Review of Network Economics, vol. 8, no. 1, March 2009, pp. 40-60. [RNE full paper]
Preprint: [PDF]
Digital rights management: Desirable, inevitable, and almost irrelevant, A. Odlyzko. Extended abstract. DRM'07: Proc. 2007 ACM Workshop on Digital Rights Management, ACM, 2007, pp. 39-40. [PDF]
Privacy and the clandestine evolution of ecommerce, A. Odlyzko. To appear in Proceedings ICEC2007: Ninth International Conference on Electronic Commerce, ACM, 2007. [PDF]
Metcalfe's Law is Wrong, B. Briscoe, A. Odlyzko, and B. Tilly, IEEE Spectrum, July 2006, pp. 26-31. [online version]
An earlier and more detailed preprint: A refutation of Metcalfe's Law and a better estimate for the value of networks and network interconnections, A. Odlyzko and B. Tilly. [PDF]
Economic costs of toll access, A. M. Odlyzko. Pages 32-35 in Open Access: Key Strategic, Technical and Economic Aspects, Neil Jacobs, ed., Chandos, 2006. [Chapter, PDF]
[Book information]
Technobubbles: Ancient, recent, and future, A. Odlyzko. Om Malik's blog, Five Years After the Bubble series. [text] [Om Malik's blog]
Finding a voice: Learning from history, A. M. Odlyzko. Pages 58-64 in Connected Homes, F. Gil de Bernabe y Varela, ed., Cisco, 2004. [text] [online version of Connected Homes book]
The evolution of price discrimination in transportation and its implications for the Internet, A. M. Odlyzko, Review of Network Economics, vol. 3, no. 3, September 2004, pp. 323-346. [RNE full paper]
This paper is based on a more extensive manuscript, presented at TPRC 2004, Pricing and architecture of the Internet: Historical perspectives from telecommunications and transportation, A. M. Odlyzko. [PDF]
Privacy, economics, and price discrimination on the Internet, A. M. Odlyzko. ICEC2003: Fifth International Conference on Electronic Commerce, N. Sadeh, ed., ACM, 2003, pp. 355-366. Reprinted on pp. 187-211 of Economics of Information Security, L. Jean Camp and S. Lewis, eds., Kluwer, 2004. Also reprinted on pp. 39-61 of The Icfaian Journal of Management Research, vol. 3, no. 12, December 2004. [PDF]
The unsolvable privacy problem and its implications for security technologies, A. M. Odlyzko. Information Security and Privacy: 8th Australasian Conference, ACISP 2003, R. Safavi-Naini and J. Seberry, eds., Lecture Notes in Computer Science #2727, Springer, 2003, pp. 51-54. [PDF] [text]
The case against micropayments, A. M. Odlyzko. Financial Cryptography: 7th International Conference, FC 2003, R. N. Wright, ed., Lecture Notes in Computer Science #2742, Springer, 2003, pp. 77-83. [PDF] [text]
Economics, psychology, and sociology of security, A. M. Odlyzko. Financial Cryptography: 7th International Conference, FC 2003, R. N. Wright, ed., Lecture Notes in Computer Science #2742, Springer, 2003, pp. 182-189. [PDF] [text]
False hopes, A. M. Odlyzko. Red Herring, no. 123, March 2003, p. 31. [text, with corrigendum]
Talk, Talk, Talk: So who needs streaming video on a phone? The killer app for 3G may turn out to be--surprise--voice calls, A. M. Odlyzko. Forbes, August 20, 2001, p. 28. [text] [Forbes version]
Internet TV: Implications for the long distance network, A. M. Odlyzko. In Internet Television, E. Noam, J. Groebel, and D. Gerbarg, eds., Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003, pp. 9-18. [PDF] [text]
Mathematics, cryptology, and technology, A. M. Odlyzko. Foreward to Public-Key Cryptography and Computational Number Theory, K. Alster, J. Urbanowicz, and H. C. Williams, eds., Walter de Gruyter, 2001, pp. ix-x. [preprint, text]
The myth of Internet time, A. M. Odlyzko. Technology Review, 104(3) (April 2001), pp. 92-93. [preprint, text] [Technology Review version]
The visible problems of the invisible computer: A skeptical look at information appliances, A. M. Odlyzko. First Monday 4(9) (September 1999), http://firstmonday.org/. [Abstract] [PDF] [text] [First Monday version]
The future of money, A. M. Odlyzko. [text]
Smart and stupid networks: Why the Internet is like Microsoft, A. M. Odlyzko, ACM netWorker, Dec. 1998, pp. 38-46. [Abstract] [PDF] [text] [netWorker version]
Outsourcing of research: Change and stability, A. M. Odlyzko, in Trends in Industrial Innovation: Industry Perspectives and Policy Implications, 1997 Forum Proceedings, Sigma Xi, 1998, pp. 17-22. [text]
The slow evolution of electronic publishing, A. M. Odlyzko, in Electronic Publishing '97: New Models and Opportunities, A. J. Meadows and F. Rowland, eds., ICCC Press, 1997, pp. 4-18. [PDF] [Word] [text]
Electronics and the future of education, A. M. Odlyzko. On the Horizon 5(4) (July/August 1997), pp. 8-9. Extended version in the online collection The Transition from Paper: Where are we Going and how will we get there?, R. S. Berry and A. S. Moffatt, eds., American Academy of Arts & Sciences, http://www.amacad.org/publications/trans.htm. [text] [extended version] [extended version in AAA&S collection]
Computer algebra and its applications: Where are we going?, A. M. Odlyzko, in Beherrschung von Informationssystemen, H. C. Mayr, ed., R. Oldenbourg, 1996, pp. 33-41. [PDF]
The future of research: Decline or transformation?, A. M. Odlyzko, in Proc. 19th Annual Meeting, C. H. McGruder, III, and W. E. Collins, eds., Nat. Soc. Black Physicists, 1996, pp. 89-93. [text]
We still need unfettered research, A. M. Odlyzko, Research*Technology Management, 39 (no. 1) (Jan.-Feb. 1996), pp. 9-11. [text]
The decline of unfettered research, A. M. Odlyzko, version of October 4, 1995. [PDF] [text] [Pantaneto Forum, issue 56, October 2014]

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