The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google

ISBN-13: 9780393062281 / Angielski / Twarda / 2008 / 224 str.

Nicholas Carr

Opis

A hundred years ago, companies stopped producing their own power with steam engines and generators and plugged into the newly built electric grid. The cheap power pumped out by electric utilities not only changed how businesses operated but also brought the modern world into existence. Today a similar revolution is under way. Companies are dismantling their private computer systems and tapping into rich services delivered over the Internet. This time it's computing that's turning into a utility. The shift is already remaking the computer industry, bringing new competitors like Google to the fore and threatening traditional stalwarts like Microsoft and Dell. But the effects will reach much further. Cheap computing will ultimately change society as profoundly as cheap electricity did. In this lucid and compelling book, Nicholas Carr weaves together history, economics, and technology to explain why computing is changing--and what it means for all of us.

O autorze

Nicholas Carr, geboren 1959, studierte englische und amerikanische Literatur an der Harvard University und war als Herausgeber der Harvard Business Review tätig. Mit Beiträgen u.a. in The New York Times Magazine, Wired, The Financial Times, Die Zeit, den Sachbüchern The Big Switch und Does IT Matter? und nicht zuletzt seinem wegweisenden Artikel Is Google Making Us Stupid? erwarb er sich den Ruf als einer der provokantesten und prophetischsten Denker zum gesellschaftlichen und wirtschaftlichen Wandel in der Dot-Com-Ära.