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Title: The Control Revolution: How The Internet is Putting Individuals in Charge and Changing the World We Know by Andrew L. Shapiro, Richard C. Leone ISBN: 1-891620-19-3 Publisher: PublicAffairs Pub. Date: June, 1999 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.88 (17 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: Pessimistic point of view
Comment: The only new thing I learned with this book is: "Don't ever buy a book without taking its wrapping off and reading a few lines first."
Except for the chapter about Microsoft (about 20 pages), I consider this book useless. Seems like the author grabbed a list of all the advantages that can be found on the use of the internet and formulated a number of weird reasons to question each one of them. Some of those "reasons" were just so small and insignificant that his efforts to fill 10 pages with it 'no matter how' are so evident. For example, in one part he critizes the capability that the internet has when finding the meaning of a specific word, without having to browse an entire list of words in a place like a dictionary. His "reason"? He says that "we might lose the pleasure of those strange accidents when we look for a word but find another one on the road that leds us to new and unexpected feelings" or something like that. Give me a break.
Yup, that old saying "don't judge a book by its cover" fits perfectly here. The title is somewhat tricky.
Rating: 1
Summary: The Emperor Wears No Clothes
Comment: WARNING: There is much hype surrounding this book. I searched for meat on the bones of this tome and was left hungry. It reads like a term paper: always talking but not saying very much. At the end there are 40 pages of notes and bibliography listings that had me wondering where all the results of this extensive research went. Honestly, this entire piece of writing could have been condensed into a solid magazine article, bit instead was stretched out for the sake of filling 2 covers. In conclusion, if you want to read on the legal issues created by the internet, surely there must be something better out there. If you are looking for a book that talks of the effects of technology on society, try The New Renaisance by Douglas Robertson.
Rating: 4
Summary: For those with second thoughts
Comment: It is nice, finally, to read an intelligent book about the Internet - one that is neither overly celebratory nor overly gloomy. Most books written about the 'Net are overly positive, painting the kind of unrealistic picture of the future that one associates with the Worlds Fair of 1939, which, among other things, portrayed the City of the Future as blessedly free of traffic jams. Whoops! That sure didn't happen!
Shapiro uses the term "over-steer" to describe how the 'Net and all its benefits might bring unintended consequences. For example, the 'Net eliminates the middleman, but maybe the middleman offers value that will be sorely missed. The 'Net allows us to personalize information, but maybe an over-personalized world will cut us off from the marvels and pleasures of serendipity - in other words, if we only read the news we want, we might miss something vitally important (I think this is unlikely. Anyone with one molecule of curiousity in their brains will experience mountains of interesting information on the Interent 'by accident.')
Hats off to Shapiro for thinking this technology through. This book is recommended for people who always have second thoughts.
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Title: Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace by Lawrence Lessig ISBN: 0465039138 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: June, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.50 |
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Title: Data Smog : Surviving the Information Glut Revised and Updated Edition by David Shenk ISBN: 0062515519 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 01 June, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Being Digital by Nicholas Negroponte ISBN: 0679762906 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 03 January, 1996 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Future of Ideas : The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World by Lawrence Lessig ISBN: 0375726446 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 22 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: SMART SCHOOLS: FROM TRAINING MEMORIES TO EDUCATING MINDS by David Perkins ISBN: 0028740181 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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