What Would Google Do? (Jeff Jarvis)

It’s difficult to remember the Internet before Google.  In just over ten years, the little company begun in a Menlo Park, California garage has grown into a globally-known giant.  Its name has become a common verb.  Its search engine is the world’s primary link to exploring the Web.  Some of its freely-shared tools have replaced [...]

Read Full Post »

The Emerging 2.0 World: Three Book Reviews

I usually review one book at a time in this blog. Not today. These three excellent books go so well together that I can’t help sharing them all at once. Each one examines an aspect of the web 2.0* social networking revolution (and the technology supporting it), and then projects into a not-too-distant future. That [...]

Read Full Post »

Thunderstruck (Erik Larson)

In this age of cell phones and constant communication, it’s easy to think our generation is the first that can’t get away from everything. We’ve become connected 24/7. I’ve made calls from mountain ridges and remote bike trails. I still enjoy shutting off the phone from time to time, but it’s a temporary isolation. Real [...]

Read Full Post »

The Big Switch (Nicholas Carr)

History has been known to repeat itself.  In The Big Switch: Our New Digital Destiny [LibraryThing / WorldCat], Nicholas Carr identifies one trend that seems to be doing a rerun in our modern world.  He connects the rise of electrical utilities in the late nineteenth century and the advent of Internet utilities during our own era. [...]

Read Full Post »