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The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google
by: Nicholas Carr

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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 303.4834
EAN: 9780393062281
ISBN: 0393062287
Label: W. W. Norton
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 276
Publication Date: January 07, 2008
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Sales Rank: 12252
Studio: W. W. Norton

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Product Description:
An eye-opening look at the new computer revolution and the coming transformation of our economy, society, and culture.

A hundred years ago, companies stopped producing their own power with steam engines and generators and plugged into the newly built electric grid. The cheap power pumped out by electric utilities not only changed how businesses operated but also brought the modern world into existence. Today a similar revolution is under way. Companies are dismantling their private computer systems and tapping into rich services delivered over the Internet. This time it's computing that's turning into a utility. The shift is already remaking the computer industry, bringing new competitors like Google to the fore and threatening traditional stalwarts like Microsoft and Dell. But the effects will reach much further. Cheap computing will ultimately change society as profoundly as cheap electricity did. In this lucid and compelling book, Nicholas Carr weaves together history, economics, and technology to explain why computing is changing—and what it means for all of us.

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- What is the boundary between the internet and you?
Nicholas Carr is the Harvard professor who wrote the "Does IT Matter?" article in the Harvard Business Review a few years ago (and who consequently got a bunch of people agitated). In the Big Switch, he looks at the evolving structure of the internet and sees parallels with how the electrical grid evolved over the last century. He rolls the story forward and like Jonathan Zittrain in "The Future of the Internet and How To Stop It" he finds some things to worry about. They are big things.

What are the implications when in the name of convenience, simplicity, personalization, and good service your every click is understood by Google (or whomever)? What are the human implications of Google knowing (or being able to infer) lots about lots, and lots about you - all without your knowledge? What are the implications that the device on your belt or on your desk is not fully in your control? Here's a couple ... Read More

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- A Fascinating Look at What Lies Ahead for Us in Technology
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RFIY656SRH4RU What does electricity and computing have to do with each other, besides the fact you need electricity to make your computer work? In "The Big Switch" you are taken on a fascinating journey to show how computing is following much the same path as elecricity did when it was first rolled out to the masses. Whereas there was a time when electricity was generated on-site where it was needed, the same can be said of computing power today -- we have our own IT departments and computer installations. In the future the author argues much of this will be moved to the "cloud" where our ideas of how we use computers will change radically. In this video I walk you through some of the concepts of cloud computing and introduce you more to this fascinating book that is sure to have IT-geeks and non-geeks alike reading to find out what lies ahead for us in the not too distant ... Read More

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- The Dark Underside of the Internet
In the 1990's the internet was heralded as a transformative medium that would level society and provide free information. Now after the "dot-com bust", we are seeing a different perspective. Carr describes how the internet is indeed having profound effects, and some of them may not be as benign as we anticipated:

* professionalization dwindling in the wake of internet amateurs/volunteers doing the work.

* "unbundling" of services and media - so that we only look at what's most attractive and ignore other things (which may be actually more important)

* IT departments disappearing as everyone accesses computing services as a generic "utility" provided by an outside vendor.

* our every action on the net is tracked/recorded/compiled, whether we think we are "anonymous" or not, and this info is of intense interest to industry and government.

* cyberspace isn't ... Read More

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- The future of computing?
Nice discussion/analogy of the history of electric power generation and the future of computers. Not sure if we'll get to where the author claims, but the trend is there.

Maybe it's time to sell Microsoft stock?

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