Summary: one to read quickly, a chapter at a time, like Digital Economy an excellent review of where technology is at, and where it is taking us. Focussed on the impact of Web 2.0 type innovations like wiki, and user input, it argues for a new way of working that is collaborative and ideas driven. Written to the standard of a good Wired or Economist article, well researched and well written. For many people, they are increasingly becoming a modular unit, in a flexible workforce, that uses their ideas and input, their problem solving, but often fails to recognise and reward the contributions that are hard to measure. This is a work environment that requires different behaviours, flexibility and innovation, but self sufficiency too. If the West is to remain more successful than competitors, it needs to be smarter than traditional hierarchical structures.

On the debit side, it has been printed on pretty shabby paper, and it has a couple of typos. Although insightful and thoughtful, I'm not sure that it contributes anything terribly new, that most readers would not have more or less figured out themselves. It also fails to clarify where new approaches are likely to work, and where they are unlikely to work. A more technologically empowered and ideas orientated organisation is essential in some sectors, less so in others. A better understanding of the variables, would make for a more rounded understanding. Cheap computing, and connectivity makes it possible. From a personal point of view, I would be intrigued to see how these approaches could be incorporated into government.

Random Quote

"The bottom line is this: The immutable, standalone Web site is dead. Say hello to the Web that increasingly looks like a library full of chatty components that interact and talk to one another. Increasingly, poeple are engineering software, databases, and Web sites so that they not only meet private objectives, but so that they can be used in ways the originators did not know or intend. this makes it very easy to build new Web services out of these exisitng components by mashing them together in fresh combinations."
p38