primers
customisation
case studies
memoirs
background
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background
The
more ambitious dot com literature sets out to explain the
digital world or the new economy, rather than merely
provide directions for travel on the information
highway.
Some of the writing is of outstanding value, distinguished
by a grasp of economics and technology, as well as a sense
of how organisations operate.
Other texts are either fatuous (best part of The Ten
Second Internet Manager is the title) or deeply
problematical, as their assumptions and prescriptions are
quite inconsistent with what can be observed about
markets, the way businesses operate and basic human
nature. At best they are aspiration statements: read them
for their evangelical enthusiasm (or for entertainment)
but don't expect many insights.
which economy
For the big picture start with Information Rules: A
Strategic Guide to the Network Economy (Boston,
Harvard Business School Press 99) by Carl Shapiro &
Hal Varian. It is an outstanding study. If you only have
time for one book about the new economy, this is the one
for you.
Contributors to The Future of the Electronic Marketplace
(Cambridge, MIT Press, 98), edited by Derek Leebaert, explore business-to-business
connectivity, the revolution in finance, payment systems, regulatory
issues, retailing and communications infrastructure developments.
B Joseph Pine & Brian
Gilmore's The Experience Economy (Boston, Harvard
Business School 99) offers a useful although sometimes
overstated perspective on the 'information
economy'. We think that the idea of business as theatre
is pushed too far. It is, however, a concise retstatement
of many of the ideas explored by Seth Godin, Dave Siegel
and other authors noted in the customisation page of this
profile.
Booz-Allen consultant Michael J Wolf argues that we're
living in The
Entertainment Economy (New York, Times 99). His book
is a readable
analysis of convergence from a media industry perspective. It
has a promo site.
Harold Vogel's Entertainment Industry Economics
(Cambridge, Cambridge Uni Press 98) is a useful reality
check, as is Bruce Wasserstein's Big Deal (New
York, Warner 98).
Don Tapscott's The
Digital Economy (New York, McGraw-Hill 96) is a
prescription from ubiquitous cyber-guru (Tom Peters for
the 90's), a bible in some parts of the bureaucracy,
disfigured by glib aphorisms and thin analysis with a dash
of Toffler and Naisbitt. It is not recommended. His Growing
Up Digital New York, McGraw-Hill 99) offers
ruminations about the 'Net Generation' - kids online at
school, at play and buying.
Don Tapscott co-edited Blueprint to the Digital Economy:Creating Wealth
In The Era Of E-Business (New York, McGraw-Hill
98), a more substantial - albeit uneven - collection of
papers by business leaders and analysts.
The bio-economics
jargon - executives as "corporate geneticists" -
in Charles Fine's Clockspeed
(New York, Little Brown 98)
fails to disguise a disappointing and thin analysis.
Kevin 'Wired' Kelly offers
New Rules For The New Economy (New York, Viking 98). His 'new economy' doesn't seem that new to us - it's strongly reminiscent of Hollywood - and we're reluctant to shave our heads, don funny orange robes and chant
the mantras such as the
'New Rule: Embrace Dumb Power' and 'New Rule: Follow the Free'. Much
of it's nonsense: consult Varian's Information Rules instead.
Patrick Young &
Thomas Theys' Capital Markets Revolution: The
Future of Markets in the Online World (London, FT 99)
is a crisp introduction to wider dimensions of online financial trading.
Global
Economic Commerce: Theory & Case Studies (Cambridge, MIT Press
99) by J Christopher Westland & Theodore Clark is an excellent
introduction to the economy as a whole and to specific areas such as
electronic auctions and digital shopfronts.
It's refreshingly free
of hype and the case studies are pertinent, unlike most of the dot com
books. We've
noted Dan Schiller's provocative Digital Capitalism: Networking the
Global Market System (Cambridge, MIT Press 99) in writings about the
future of the Web.
Blown
to Bits: How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy
(Boston, Harvard Business School 99) is a sprightly advertorial
from Boston
Consulting Group's Philip Evans and Thomas Wurster. Forget everything
you know, blow up your IT system, do a Quentin Tarentino on your staff
... and you, with a little help from the Boston boys, can make lots of
money on the digital highway. If only it was that simple.
The work
of economist Robert Gordon
and IT analyst Paul Strassmann,
such as the latter's incisive The Squandered Computer:
Evaluating The Business Alignment Of Information Technologies (New
Canaan, Information Economics Press 97) offer greater insights.
The title of Blur - The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy
by Stan Davis & Christopher Meyer of the Ernst & Young Centre
for Business Innovation (Oxford, Capstone 99) says it all: insights
and nonsense delivered with evangelical passion and a large dose of
jargon.
Where else could you discover that "the arrangements we are
all used to, like working for money, paying for goods and services ...
are all blurring" and work through 268 pages about the 'connected
economy' without sighting a single URL?
Their new masterpiece, Future
Wealth (Boston, Harvard Business School Press 00) is even
whackier; lots of sound, less sense. The IBM Electronic
Commerce Guide is of greater worth.
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