Don Tapscott

Three hundred pages of medium sized print provides all the information you might want to. Know about blockchains. I am torn between liking it for the amount of information and disliking it for providing too much information. It helps if you already have an understanidng of blockchain technology but I wonder how it might come across for someone with no previous knowledge of the technology? Youu get the impression that the authors are like the man with a hammer who sees everything as a nail. show more Having thus panned the book I must come back and say that it is nevertheless a very insightful book and do recommend it for someone who wants to take the time to review the history of Bitcoin and Blockchain technology up to the year 2016. There is no doubt a revolution. Whether it is blockchain or something else rrmains to be seen. show less

I have never read about about the sociological impact of technology of such vintage that still seems so prescient, considered, and relevant. Built around interaction with actual 11 - 15 year-olds (mostly), there is a lot of first-hand "N-gen" experience here, as the author labels the generation born and growing up digital. Admittedly as a non-parent much of this is not targeted at me directly, but I find the many situations presented and observations made entertaining and even enlightening. show more For me, judging such a book come inevitably from grading its predictions. This one has a good list toward the end of Chapter 9:

• Real Estate: I find much of this book's insight demographic, centered around the bump up in youth numbers in the Baby Boom Echo. Still, these N-Geners I find want mobility not ownership and needing "wired" homes, etc.? Well, the author missed the wireless transformation...



• "telework centers": I wish...



• Community gardens and whatnot ...I see that. Missed the whole Whole Foods thing where this gets sold back to the N-Geners



• "They'll want the car to be a place for entertainment" Yup.



• "Clothing. This is a generation with a strong sense of style." I see that.



• "cyberbank" Check.



• "N-Geners love to play" They sure do!



• "Education... delivered to them on the Net" Yes



• ..and more accuracy, like the growth in UPS etc. for Net-ordered goods. Totally missed all that pirated digital media, though...

In this postTo Catch a Predator times it really seems the dark corners of the Net are downplayed: "pornographic images represent less than one half of one percent of images on the Net." More recent data suggests that "30 percent of Internet content is porn" and that "90 percent of boys and 60 percent of girls are exposed to Internet porn by age 18."

The author does warn about "dataveillance" with foresight and accuracy in regarding the privacy debates and commodification of identity that happens today.

As a footnote, the author recommends [book:Virtuous Reality|472439]. show less

tedious and repetitive BUT ideas that are put forward in this book are valid and inspiring. If only the authors could write it in a more condensed way...

“The monolithic, self-contained, inwardly focused corporation is dying" -- is the gist of this enjoyable book. However, it's not just all about the old-guard's eschaton; /Wikinomics/ is primarily about the new type of corporation taking over the world. To wit:

"Regardless of the industry you compete in, or whether your firm is large or small, internal capabilities and a handful of pre-web partnerships are not sufficient to meet the market’s expectations for growth and innovation. Winning show more companies today have open and porous boundaries, and compete by reaching outside their walls to harness external knowledge, resources and capabilities. They’re like a hub for innovation, and a magnet for uniquely qualified minds. They focus their internal staff on value integration and orchestration, and treat the world as their R&D department. All of this adds up to a new kind of collaborative enterprise. An ecosystem of peers that is constantly shaping and re-shaping clusters of knowledge and capability to compete on an international basis.”

Forget about the Age of Aquarius; this is the new Age of Mass Collaboration.

“The new age of mass collaboration will no doubt seem complex and uncertain. And it’s true that collaboration and openness are more art than science. Leaders must prepare their collaborative minds and companies will need unique capabilities to work in collaborative environments. Capabilities to develop new kinds of relationships, sense important developments, add value, and turn nascent network knowledge into compelling value, are becoming the bread and butter of wealth creation and success.”

Second Life, Google, Amazon, Gold Corp: all are companies that follow this new, exciting business model. If you want to read something stimulating and visionary, read /Wikinomics/. show less