Eric Schmidt, Jared Cohen. The New Digital Age: Transforming Nations, Businesses, and Our Lives.
Wrapping the reader of modern and future society, the authors present their view of the global challenges that mankind will face in the information age. Despite the contradictory feelings from reading, a worthy alternative to the work of Jared Cohen and Eric Schmidt is a surprise not to remember. The main expectation, which was not destined to come true, is the abundance of facts. Despite access to the results of global research and experiments, they are not exactly abused in the book. There are several obvious reasons for this: colossal experience in a high-tech company and a significant social status. Eric Schmidt - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Google, which came in 2001. From 2001 to 2011, he was CEO of Google and coordinated the technical and business strategy of the company together with its founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Jared Cohen is the founder and director of the Google Ideas Science Center; Rhodes Scholarship, Oxford University; Author of "Children of Jihad" and "One Hundred Days of Silence", as well as articles in Foreign Affairs, Police Review, SAIS Review, Hoover Digest, The Washington Post and The International Herald Tribune. In view of the above, the "New Digital World" a priori can not be boring or poor on new ideas work. Yes, sometimes the narrative resembles the transcript of conversation of professionals on the topic "How it will be next", and many thoughts (mainly in the final part) are not disclosed at all. Everything becomes quite different when you perceive the book not as a bone for the hungry for new knowledge of the mind, but as an extensive list of ideas for new and deeper research.
Tim Wu. The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires.
"The main switch" - the most controversial work on the Internet from all that came into contact with my ideas about the development of the Network. Until recently, I did not want to talk about this book; And also agonizing was the expectation of its completion. After a while, understanding came about: Tim Woo came closest to understanding the prospects of online society. But! The form of the story will not be liked by everyone.
The experience of a law professor at Columbia University tells Wu: a literate student will not take the first words to believe everything he has heard. The latter is peculiar to rely on facts, and not on the personal experience of the teacher. Sometimes monotonously - fact after fact, history behind history, - Tim Wu brings the reader to the fact that the Internet can comprehend the fate of radio, television and film production. Events related to the formation of the above-mentioned industries are allotted about 90% of the entire text. Contrary to this, the "Main Switch" is a book solely about the Web. According to Tim Wu, any technology passes the "Cycle", which includes the monopoly of some organization, regulation and censorship as long as the process of its development is not fixed (if this word is generally suitable for our time). In the dry residue: a complex and multi-level narrative with hundreds of tightly intertwined events and facts.
Julian Assange. The Unauthorised Autobiography.
"Unauthorized autobiography" Julian Assange is like a confident fiction with a story about the ordeals of an incorrigible idealist, revolutionary and discoverer. Understanding, all this sounds somewhat pompous ... Under the syllable of the book! The line about the childhood, adolescence and youth of Assange is given to him with special difficulty - this can not be overlooked. It is this part - without a false exaggeration - that represents the main interest. The narrative about the publication of the Afghan dossier, the killings of reporters and civilians in Iraq, and cooperation with Brigitte Jostoddir (the main sensational pirate party in Iceland) - became public in numerous articles and reviews, leaving the author in the vast shadow of his work. Thanks to the "Unauthorized autobiography", we finally get rid of the notion of Assange as a result of his publications. From this work it becomes clear which events and personalities of the past have shaped the worldview of such an unusual fighter for the freedom of information dissemination. For all the time of reading, I was not left with the feeling of talking with a teenager looking at the world with a different eye, not recognizing the authorities, and most importantly - creating an amazing space around him. This space was his main child - the Wikileaks project, which united tens of thousands of those who are trying to understand the essence of the events without the nauseating slogans and speeches of the establishment, as well as the half-truths of the military leadership. In the shadow of provocative publications, there seems to be an inexhaustible source of free thought, philanthropy and love of truth. Remaining faithful to himself Assange at the last moment breaks the contract with the publisher to publish the manuscript, referring to her intimacy and frankness. Realizing the risk, the publisher decided to publish the text, referring to it as an "Unauthorized autobiography."