Masters of the Wired World: Cyberspace Speaks out (Financial Times Series) Book

The average computer game now has more computing power than a supercomputer costing $20m in the seventies. Everyday more than one and a half million new pages are added to the Internet. The value of e-commerce is set to grow from $35 billion in 1999 to $300 billion in the 2002. No wonder Arthur C Clarke likens using the Internet to a man opening his mouth under Niagara Falls in search of a drink. Its scale, astonishing rate of growth and the profundity of its effects are almost overpowering, too much to comprehend. But comprehend we must if we are to benefit from the information revolution. As Alvin Toffler puts it: "A Wired World demands a complete rethink and major reconstruction of society from top to bottom." Masters Of The Wired World is an attempt to help us come to terms with the enormity of what is happening by identifying the key issues, for governments, businesses, the economy, nation states and the working lives of individuals. Editor Anne Leer has assembled as heavy weight a group as have ever shared a common platform to analyse different facets of the Wired World. From the preface by Tony Blair, through the first essay by Al Gore, to others by Alvin Toffler, Arthur C Clarke, David Puttnam, Charles Handy, Nicholas Negroponte of the MIT Media Lab, these are acknowledged world leaders in their fields. You feel that each and everyone of them is straining to make sense of a process that has only just got into gear and could lead almost anywhere. In 40 short submissions they scrutinise the Internet from every conceivable angle of concern to business and government. The only gap is the effect from the point of view of the individual consumer. That in itself will be a source of significant business opportunities in the future. Nevertheless, this is an impressive tome dealing very seriously with a very serious subject. It is not casual reading, but it does lend itself to selective scrutiny. Any intelligent observer of the Internet would benefit from this book. --Alex BenadyRead More