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Release 2.0 : A Design for Living in the Digital Age (Cassette/Abridged)
by Esther Dyson (Reader: Candice Agree)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Random House Audio (1997-10-13)
ISBN: 0553478710
EAN: 9780553478716
Dewey Decimal #: 303.4833
Binding/Media: Audio Cassette
Release Date: 1997-10-13
SKU: AManPro-0000244
Condition: New
Comments: new, new in box, never opened, tear in shrink wrap, remainder mark through bar code
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
People all over the world, and the U.S. in particular, are struggling with the enormous business, social, and political implications of the digital age. Those in the technology vanguard want to retain the purity and frontier spirit of cyberspace, while business leaders and entrepreneurs are trying to harness its economic power. Many of us think of the internet as simply a tool for electronic mail, while others see it as a new medium that primarily affects their children. Some worry about threats to their own privacy; others are concerned that criminals may use the new technology to outwit law enforcement. And yet others wonder how requirements for electronic literacy and access to information may affect the gap between haves and have-nots. Many people have discussed the future of the digital age at great length, but, until now, no one has explored the opportunities and trade-offs individuals and governments will face as society moves more fully into the information age. In Release 2.0, Esther Dyson draws on her years of experience analyzing and shaping the computer world as we know it--both in the U.S. and in Eastern and Western Europe--and her close-up knowledge of industry pioneers, business leaders, national policy makers, and local; innovators and activists to explain how this new world works and lay out the possibilities for the future that depend on the choices we make. These choices include privacy, openness, trust, accountability, ownership of ideas and content, access to opportunity, and education. Filled with examples, stories, and Dyson's trademark wit, this will be on of the most talked about audiobooks of 1997.
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Amazon.com Review
In her first book, respected digerati opinion-maker Esther Dyson looks at computing and the Internet and how they will profoundly change our business and social lives in a fully wired world. The wisdom of Dyson's view is that, while the digital age will be vastly different from the one we know, it will be governed by the same forces that have always shaped social organizations. She has given lots of thought to how those forces will interact with specific new technologies and does a convincing job of predicting the shape of things to come in considerable detail. Dyson is the founder of the influential PC Forum conference and her company Edventure Holdings publishes the respected Release 1.0 newsletter, from which her book adapts its title. She is also chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a lobbyist organization that seeks to present a pro-Internet voice in Washington.
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Customer Reviews
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how can something so exciting be presented so boringly?
Rating  (2)
Date: 2000-06-22
I haven't finished this book and perhaps will not. Early chapters provide information about the events and personalities that led to the popularization of the internet. The basis for Al Gore's claim to have 'invented' the Web is explained. But by and large Ms. Dyson has an uncanny flair for whinging on and on about the obvious in a distinctly unpoetic and uninteresting way. The book is so obviously narrated into a hand-held recorder, and then transcribed and cleaned up by a third party that I found myself wishing I could read the original transcripts, if only for laughs. If you are a reader who knows absolutely nothing about the World Wide Web and have never even sat down with a browser and surfed, then this book may be of some interest to you. Otherwise you will sitting there being told (rather breathlessly) the equivalent of "Fire engines are red and have loud sirens" and "Oranges are grown in Florida and California and they do not like frost".
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We either know this or we still don't
Rating (2)
Date: 2000-05-11
15 out of 15 customers found this reveiw helpful
I tried hard to appreciate Esther Dyson's book Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age, but failed. Briefly stated, the problem for me is that the topics she deals with, while important, are presented in a rather bloodless, chatty techno-speak, that either states the obvious or leaves the reader wondering what she is talking about. I kept going, hoping to discover what the buzz was about this book but only succeeded in achieving that brain dead state one can reach after hours of reading business memos and reports. I didn't find it informative, provocative, helpful, or clear. Certainly not fun. There are better, less self-centered, books about the implications of living in a digital age. Dysons 'Design' reads like it was formulated by committee. I wouldn't want to base my life on it.
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Dyson chats about the internet.
Rating (2)
Date: 2000-03-25
8 out of 10 customers found this reveiw helpful
In this book Dyson presents us with her view of how society will be changed by the power of computers, the internet and the ubiquitous information they offer. Distance is of no consequence to on-line communities, neither are time differences. On the net, everyone's just a mouse-click away and so to some extent hierarchies are flattened and decision making tends to be more distributed and communal. I found some of the book a little self-satisfied - Dyson drops the names of a lot of important people she knows without always making the relevance of this obvious. Also some of her enthusiasm for free-markets and how they are transforming the Russian economy seems a little overstated considering Russian economics is now even more corrupt and dysfunctional than it was under communism. These criticisms aside, Dyson is at her best when discussing issues of privacy, intellectual property, anonymity, encryption, communication and advertising and how these will be changed and challenged by wide-spread internet access. Her discussion in these chapters makes reading the book worthwhile and introduces many fascinating ideas which may become standard features of internet communication in the near future.
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A useful community-discussion but lacks punch
Rating (2)
Date: 1999-09-11
6 out of 6 customers found this reveiw helpful
Because I'm in the industry of know OF Esther Dyson, and have ocassionally read her stuff in the computer press. To be honest I bought this book expecting more, and found it disappointing. What I found was a columnist making her living. We learnt about her network building, her "names" and could see how she developed those into an income stream of words covering the last 10 years of the Internet.On the other hand I thought her discussion of "communities" was thoughtful. It made me stop and think about relationships and contributing. In my opinion there's little in this book for thoughtful people who are already in the IT industry. But perhaps for people who are looking for a "humanist" view of the Internet and don't know where to start, this book would be quite useful. I was thinking here of an Adult Education class or night class. The jargon might be a bit tough in places, but with a guide this book might suit that audience.
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You'll pay to hear what you already know!
Rating  (1)
Date: 1999-05-13
21 out of 23 customers found this reveiw helpful
An old Subgenius adage goes "You'll pay to hear what you already know!" So Dyson apparently decided she could write the /best/ book ever by writing things /everyone/ knows. "Email will change business communication'? Oh my God, Esther, thanks for the news flash! What's next for Release 4.0? A timely pensée on how one day we will all own VCRs (that stands for "video-cassette recorder"!), and how this will change everything, /everything/?How about this wild futuristic scenario: in the future, you (YOU!) will be able to make a book by just buying a microcassette recorder and some blank tape, taking it home and taping your unorganized frappucino-addled ramblings. You'll mail the tapes to a typing service, and have them send the MSWord documents /right/ to the printers. What about editors? In the future, everything is fast, no time for editing! Have the publisher bankroll the printing of a few hundred thousand, and wham! "Just-in-time" publishing! The question is, just in time for what?
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Retail Price: $25.00
Our Price:$1.95
That's 92% Off!
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