Review (Guest): No Boundary–Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth

4 Star, Consciousness & Social IQ, Culture, Research, Intelligence (Collective & Quantum), Intelligence (Public), Intelligence (Wealth of Networks), Philosophy, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution
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Ken Wilber

Editorial Reviews

“Ken Wilber is one of the most important pioneers in the field of consciousness in this century.”—Deepak Chopra

“The most sensible, comprehensive book on consciousness since William James.”—Dr. James Fadiman, President, Association for Transpersonal Psychology

No Boundary does for this generation what Alan Watts' writings did for an earlier one. It brings the most difficult subject of all—nature of consciousness—into an easily grasped presentation that is both elegant and simple.”—John White, editor of Kundalini, Evolution, and Enlightenment Continue reading “Review (Guest): No Boundary–Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth”

Review: Reality Is Broken–Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World

6 Star Top 10%, Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Best Practices in Management, Budget Process & Politics, Change & Innovation, Complexity & Resilience, Culture, Research, Decision-Making & Decision-Support, Democracy, Diplomacy, Economics, Education (General), Education (Universities), Environment (Solutions), Future, Games, Models, & Simulations, Information Operations, Information Society, Intelligence (Public), Intelligence (Wealth of Networks), Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Politics, Priorities, Public Administration, Stabilization & Reconstruction, Survival & Sustainment, Technology (Bio-Mimicry, Clean), True Cost & Toxicity, Truth & Reconciliation, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution, Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized), Water, Energy, Oil, Scarcity
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Jane McGonigal

5.0 out of 5 stars 6 Star for Concept–Ignores Past Pioneers–Energizes Us All

February 28, 2011

I took the time to read all of the reviews to date, and was reminded again of the chasm between those who understand technology and its possibilities, and those who do not. Being among the latter, in part because I am a veteran of 30 years of watching the US Government waste trillions over that period on too much badly designed technology (government specifications, cost plus) for the wrong reasons and generally without a positive outcome [the Internet being an exception], I must respect–as the author respects with her obviously counter-ripostive editorial interview here at Amazon–both the importance of getting a grip on reality, and the importance of being more respectful of past pioneers, such Buckminster Fuller (RIP) and Medard Gabel (co-creator with Fuller of the analog World Game, creator of the architecture for the digital EarthGame(TM), and recent contributing editor to Designing a World That Works for All: How the Youth of the World are Creating Real-World Solutions for the UN Millenium Development Goals and Beyond (Volume 1), and Russell Ackoff [e.g. Redesigning Society (Stanford Business Books) as well as John N. Warfield [e.g Societal Systems: Planning, Policy and Complexity (Wiley Series on Systems Engineering & Analysis). And then there are the 55 authors in Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace, including Ms. Jan Watkins, Doug Englebart, Mark Tovey. In short, the WORST thing one can say about this book is that the author has had an immaculate conception to her great credit, but one that could have been vastly better grounded had she done her homework and a multi-disciplinary literature review, something her PhD committee evidently did not consider necessary.

Having said that, this book is without question a 6+, a ranking achieved by the top 10% of the non-fiction books and DVDs I have reviewed here at Amazon (1692 not counting this one). This is a world-changing book, and while the author has benefited from a fabulous personality and personal presence, and first rate representation and promotion, when read carefully and completely and placed in the context of all that is about us today, the originality, relevance, and imminent potential of this book and the ideas in this book cannot be denied. The author does not do what Medard Gabel has done–provide the architectural underpinings for the digital EarthGame(TM) and global to local holistic “dashboards” that integrate the ten high-level threats to humanity, the twelve core policies, the true costs of every good and service–she is still at the “one of” level rather than the meta level–but if she can reach out to Medard Gabel and others and actually harness not just the cognitive surplus of the crowds, but the contextual pioneering of those who have spent decades before her thinking and doing in this arena, then she will be the righteous public face of what I am starting to call “Open Everything: from Autonomous Internet to Global Panarchy.”

 

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Review (Guest): the mesh–why the future of business is sharing

5 Star, Best Practices in Management, Capitalism (Good & Bad), Change & Innovation, Communications, Culture, Research, Economics, Future, Information Society, Intelligence (Collective & Quantum), Intelligence (Commercial), Intelligence (Wealth of Networks)

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Lisa Gansky (Author)

5.0 out of 5 stars How and why a new business model has created a “perfect storm” of opportunities

November 10, 2010

By Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) – See all my reviews

A Mesh enterprise (as opposed to a Mesh company) consists of everyone directly or indirectly associated with the design, production, marketing, sales, distribution, and servicing. It relies on advanced web and mobile data networks to obtain or create whatever information is needed (e.g. demographics of consumers, market trends and patterns, as well as the nature, extent, and frequency of usage. Also, it makes effective use of word-of-mouth and social network channels to “get the word out” about offers, news, and recommendations.

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Review (Guest): What’s Mine Is Yours–The Rise of Collaborative Consumption

5 Star, Change & Innovation, Civil Society, Complexity & Resilience, Consciousness & Social IQ, Culture, Research, Democracy, Information Society, Intelligence (Collective & Quantum), Intelligence (Wealth of Networks), Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Philosophy, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution
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Rachel Botsman
(Author), Roo Rogers
(Author)

5.0 out of 5 stars Ways to Share That Benefit You and Others

September 17, 2010

ByKare Anderson “Kare Anderson” (Sausalito, CA) – See all my reviews

One Saturday a friend who lives on Nob Hill in S.F. drove a zipcar over to visit me in Sausalito. He was eager to tell me about his trip to Istanbul, paid for by renting out his spare bedroom. Earlier that morning, via a freecycle posting, a stranger picked up some clay pots I'd set out by my garage so he could make a deck garden. Our apparently different actions are, in fact, part of a trend that Roos Rogers and Rachel Botsman dub collaborative consumption in their book, What's Mine is Yours.

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Review (Guest): Program or be Programmed–Ten Commands for a Digital Age

5 Star, Change & Innovation, Civil Society, Communications, Culture, Research, Democracy, Economics, Education (General), Education (Universities), Information Society, Information Technology, Intelligence (Public), Intelligence (Wealth of Networks), Media, Misinformation & Propaganda, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution
Amazon Page

Douglas Rushkoff

Table of Contents

I. TIME  Do Not Be “Always On”
II. PLACE  Live in Person
III. CHOICE  You May Always Choose “None of the Above”
IV. COMPLEXITY  You Are Never Completely Right
V. SCALE  One Size Does Not Fit All
VI. IDENTITY  Be Yourself
VII. SOCIAL  Do Not Sell Your Friends
VIII. FACT  Tell the Truth
IX. OPENNESS Share, Don’t Steal
X. PURPOSE Program or Be Programmed

5.0 out of 5 stars Re-Humanizing Our Future

December 29, 2010

Brent Finnegan (Harrisonburg, VA, US) – See all my reviews

I haven't read Rushkoff's other books (although I might go back and read Life Inc: How Corporatism Conquered the World, and How We Can Take It Back).

Program or be Programmed is a quick read. I read it on the Kindle my wife got me for Christmas. The irony of reading a book about the pitfalls and possibilities of technology we don't fully understand on a device I don't fully understand was not lost on me.

I would describe this as an “Internet philosophy book” that might fit on the bookshelf somewhere between Neal Stephenson's In the Beginning…was the Command Line and Jeff Jarvis' What Would Google Do? But I found Program to be even more thoughtful and succinct than those books.

Quote from the book: “Instead of learning about our technology, we opt for a world in which our technology learns about us.”

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Review (DVD): The Social Network

6 Star Top 10%, Change & Innovation, Communications, Games, Models, & Simulations, Information Operations, Intelligence (Wealth of Networks), Reviews (DVD Only)
Amazon Page

Jesse Eisenberg

5.0 out of 5 stars Six Star Special–The Essence of the Emerging Era

January 27, 2011

I was very glad to have a chance to see this movie on an airplane, and it was everything others had led me to believe. For myself, it captured the essence of what Peter Drucker calls the mono-maniac. I found the over-all blend of academic banality, personal eccentricities and genius, inter-personal egos and intentions, and the final financial settlements to be totally engrossing.

In many ways I consider Facebook to be the anti-thesis of Google; the first is earnest and personal despite some warts, and a self-made network–the second is secretive, mathematical, went corporate, and lost its soul in the process–as well as its direction.

Review: Cyberpower and National Security

5 Star, Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Information Operations, Information Society, Information Technology, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Intelligence (Public), Intelligence (Wealth of Networks), Military & Pentagon Power, Misinformation & Propaganda, True Cost & Toxicity, Truth & Reconciliation, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution, Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized), War & Face of Battle
Amazon Page

Franklin D. Kramer (Editor), Stuart H. Starr (Editor), Larry Wentz (Editor)

5.0 out of 5 starsRead Macgregor & Steele for the Other Half

January 1, 2011

I like the book and I like the authors and I do NOT like the fact that neither decision-support nor intelligence (decision-support) nor M4IS2* are in this book. Retired Reader's review–at five stars–is the review I would have written were I to read the book rather than just appreciate it via Look Inside the Book, and he and I have discussed the intellectual and leadership vacuum we all have in cyberspace where most simply have no idea what they are doing.

* Multinational, Multiagency, Multidisciplinary, Multidomain Information-Sharing and Sense-Making (M4IS2)

I must defer to Retired Reader and Bob Gourley on the good of this book, and hence five stars from em as well. However, and with proper regard for the the vastly experienced and well-intentioned authors, it troubles me that they do not include core concepts and context such as were developed by Robert Garigue, who died at the age of 55 before being able to produce his master work. His Preface to my third book, Information Operations: All Information, All Languages, All the Time and a couple of his briefings that I have featured at Phi Beta Iota the Public Intelligence Blog, are all that we have to remember his towering genius. As with all my books, all free online.

Here is Robert Garigue's bottom line: cyber-power–and cyber-security and what some would call today cyber-command (actually an oxymoron) are about TRUTH & TRUST. All this stuff about protecting legacy systems that are 90% rubbish or interdicting and interfering with the 10% of our enemies that have sophisticated system, is out of touch with reality. The Chinese have whipped our butts on both stealth and riding electrical circuits into NSA's computers and they did it because we pretend that spending money on contractor vapor-ware (SAIC's Trailblazer comes to mind) is somehow equivalent to being competent at something useful.

This brings me to the bottom line: cyber-power does not exist in a vacuum. It is, like a weapon, an extention of the humans that it serves or empowers. Right now US cyber-power is–to the extent it is even relevant or effective–being managed by gerbils (Madeline Albright's term, not mine) for utterly unsound and intellectually as well as morally bankrupt ends–and it is not doing a single thing to help infantry squads see over the next hill, survive improvised explosive devices that still cannot be detected (on behalf of the Marine Corps, my #1 requirement for MASINT in 1988 after seeing the wood-encased IED's in El Salvador in 1979-1980) and on and on.

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