Category: Information Technology

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Review: The New New Thing –A Silicon Valley Story

4 Star, Change & Innovation, Culture, Research, Information Society, Information Technology

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4.0 out of 5 stars Documents Power Shifts from Wall Street to VCs to Ideas,

April 8, 2000
Michael Lewis

Great airplane book. The story of Jim Clarke, the only man to have created three billion-dollar ventures-Netscape, Silicon Graphics, and Healtheon. Documents the shifting of power from Wall Street to Silicon Valley, and offers some wonderful insights into the culture. Does not, by virtue of focusing on the one really big success story out of the Valley, begin to address the human waste and carnage from all the failed start-ups.

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Review: Real Time–Preparing for the Age of the Never Satisfied Customer

5 Star, Best Practices in Management, Capitalism (Good & Bad), Change & Innovation, Information Operations, Information Society, Information Technology

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5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond 5 Stars–This is a Very Deep Pool,

April 8, 2000
Regis McKenna

This may be one of the top three books I've read in the last couple of years. It is simply packed with insights that are applicable to both the classified intelligence community as well as the larger national information community. The following is a tiny taste from this very deep pool: “Instead of fruitlessly trying to predict the future course of a competitive or market trend, customer behavior or demand, managers should be trying to find and deploy all the tools that will enable them, in some sense, to be ever-present, ever-vigilant, and ever-ready in the brave new marketplace in gestation, where information and knowledge are ceaselessly exchanged.”

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Review: Information Productivity–Assessing Information Management Costs of U. S. Corporations

5 Star, Best Practices in Management, Information Operations, Information Technology

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5.0 out of 5 stars Report Card for CIOs: D- InfoTech is NOT Profit-Maker,

April 8, 2000
Paul A. Strassmann
Paul documents the fact that “a very large share of U.S. industrial firms are not productive in terms that apply to the information age.” He evaluates and ranks 1,586 firms, and the results are both surprising and valuable.
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Review: Information Space

5 Star, Information Operations, Information Society, Information Technology

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5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, Vital, and On Target Evaluation of InfoSpace,

April 8, 2000
Max Boisot
Together with Edward Wilson's Consilience this is the most structured and focused book in this section, and has real applicability as to how one might organize a truly national (that is to say, not just spy) intelligence community. Written from a transatlantic perspective, integrating the best of American and European thinking in his references, the author addresses the nature of information, its structuring, the dynamics of sharing information, learning cycles, institutional and cultural contexts, and ends with this thought: that we have spent close to a century “de-skilling” the population to suit assembly line needs and now must spend close to a century “re-skilling” the population to deal with complex information tasks where every action and reaction will be unique.
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Review: Hackers–Heroes of the Computer Revolution

5 Star, Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Change & Innovation, Culture, Research, Information Society, Information Technology

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5.0 out of 5 stars The Real Thing–Definitive Early Study,

April 7, 2000
Steven Levy
This is the definitive book on the early hackers, true hackers, and should be required reading for all those people, generally with good intentions, that ignorantly refer to electronic criminals and vandals as “hackers”. Steven starts his book with a “who's who” in hacking that includes Lee Felsenstein from Interval, Bill Gates, Steven Jobs, and Woz Woniak, among others, and then goes on in three parts to examine the original night hackers at MIT and other nodes of excellence, then the hardware hackers, and finally the game hackers. Hackers are a national resource, and it is only the ignorant who do not understand this.
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Review: Masters of Deception–The Gang That Ruled Cyberspace

4 Star, Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Information Society, Information Technology

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4.0 out of 5 stars Fun But Reader Beware,

April 7, 2000
Michele Slatalla
This is a fun read, but as with the Hafner and Markoff book, reader beware. Erik Bloodaxe, one of the major characters in the book and my friend as well as a trusted security engineer, inscribed this book as follows: “Robert, Hope you enjoy this classic example of 3rd rate speculative fiction. So much for journalistic integrity, eh? /s/. I also know Phiber Optic, and tried to keep him out of jail, even offered to house him and hire him on parole, but to no avail. This is a good story that crosses over frequently into speculative reporting, but it may be better for that, capturing some of the spirit of competition that exists between very talented hackers who by and large do no harm.
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