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Overview
Welcome to Release 2.1, Esther Dyson's fascinating exploration of life in our new digital society. In this provocative and timely book, Dyson - an entrepreneur, high-tech industry analyst, government adviser, and Net expert - examines the impact and implications of cyberspace, challenging us to think intelligently about its effect on every aspect of our private and public lives, from businesses to government to education. Written with an insider's knowledge and ready wit, and filled with anecdotes about the movers and shakers behind the products and politics of the computer industry, Release 2.1 presents us with a hard-hitting message: With the advent of the Internet, we all have both the opportunity and the obligation to shape the new rules we want to live by.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Despite its technical title, this first book from the New York Times-dubbed "most powerful woman in the Neterati" summarizes 20 years of experience and intelligent speculation for those whoWeb-savvy or notare wondering what all this wiring is going to mean. Editor of the newsletter Release 1.0 (from which some portions of this book are directly pulled), chairwoman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and president and owner of EDventure Holdings, Dyson doesn't present many surprises here for those familiar with her thought, but nearly everything she says is worth hearing, even twice. With a firm grounding in the status quo, Dyson simply and clearly envisions the role of the Web in humanity's future, from how it will affect education to how new business models for intellectual property will emerge. "The source of commercial value will be people's attention, not the content that consumes their attention," she says. As reproduction is made cheap and fast, "businesses who make content will have to figure out ways other than selling copies to make money, and they will." Perhaps the greatest achievement here of this prescriptive visionary is her brilliant balancing of the intersection of life and technology. With a vigorous optimism that will bring some relief to the paranoid, this longtime sage to the wired now puts her thoughts in a form that will allow many to see what the impact of digitization on our lives is, and what it will be.Library Journal
This landmark expedition into the philosophy of life on the Internet LJ 11/1/97 is excellently read by Candice Agron. Author Dyson has taken an inspired, thoughtful look deep into cyberspace and come up with predictions on the future therein. As many listeners will know, Dyson's credentials are appropriate for making such predictions on the use of the Internet. She is to be commended for making a powerful, reasoned argument for self-regulation of cyberspace by the citizens of the Internet communities. Along the way, Dyson gives the listener a wealth of information on the use and development of the Internet and pertinent insights into the responsibilities of cyberspace citizenry. All ages and even the savvy cybrarian will learn something here.Cliff Glaviano, Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., OhioBook Details
Published
June 7, 1997
Publisher
Broadway Books
Format
Audiobook
ISBN
9780553478716