From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg: What You Really Need to Know About the Internet - Softcover

John Naughton

3.76

274 ratings by Goodreads

9780857384256: From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg: What You Really Need to Know About the Internet

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0857384252 ISBN 13: 9780857384256

Publisher: Quercus Publishing Plc, 2012

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Our society has gone through a weird, unremarked transition: we've gone from regarding the Net as something exotic to something that we take for granted as a utilitarian necessity, like mains electricity or running water. In the process we've been remarkably incurious about its meaning, significance or cultural implications. Most people have no idea how the network works, nor any conception of its architecture; and few can explain why it has been - and continues to be - so uniquely disruptive in social, economic and cultural contexts. In other words, our society has become dependent on a utility that it doesn't really understand.

John Naughton has distilled the noisy chatter surrounding the internet's relentless evolution into nine clear-sighted and accessible areas of understanding. In doing so he affords everyone the requisite knowledge to make better use of the technologies and networks around us, and see lucidly into their future implications. Along the way FROM GUTENBERG TO ZUCKERBERG covers areas as diverse as the science of complexity, the economics of abundance, the appeal of disruption and the problematic nature of intellectual property.

FROM GUTENBERG TO ZUCKERBERG gives you all the basic, conceptual equipment you need to understand the Internet phenomenon.

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Review:

'A fantastic read and a marvel of economy. This is the kind of primer you want to slide under your boss's door' Cory Doctorow, Observer. (Cory Doctorow, Observer)

'From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg comes at a point when much of the traffic associated with desktop computers is migrating to mobile devices and cloud computing is a new thing. It helps those of us stuck in the old paradigm (or no paradigm at all) to catch up on what it all means' Glasgow Herald. (Glasgow Herald)

'As Naughton points out, most internet users are far more ignorant than they realise. His book is as useful to them as to neophytes' Mail on Sunday. (Mail on Sunday)

'An accessible guide to the internet, which covers the nine need-to-know ideas about its cultural significance. Naughton draws on more than two decades of study to explain how the internet works and the challenges and opportunities it will offer to future generations' The Times. (The Times)

From the Back Cover:

We've gone from regarding the Net as something exotic to something that we take for granted, like mains electricity or running water. Yet most people have no idea how the network functions, not any conception of its architecture; and few can explain why it has been - and continues to be - so uniquely disruptive in social, economic and cultural contexts. John Naughton has been thinking, arguing, lecturing and writing about the Net for over two and a half decades, and in From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg he has distilled the noisy chatter surrounding the internet's relentless evolution into nine accessible ideas. Take the long view: learning from Gutenberg. The Web is not the Net. For the Net, disruption is a feature, not a bug. Think ecology, not just economics. Complexity is the new reality. The network is now the computer. The Web is evolving. Copyrights and copywrongs: or why our Intellectual Property regime no longer makes sense. Orwell vs Huxley: the bookends of our networked future? From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg gives you a unique understanding of our networked information environment and an insight into the threats and opportunities that it offers for the future.

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