Brave New Unwired World: The Digital Big Bang and the Infinite Internet [Hardcover]

Alex Lightman (Author), William Rojas (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471441104 | ISBN-13: 978-0471441106 | Publication Date: March 8, 2002 | Edition: 1

A whirlwind tour through the exciting landscape opening up around digital wireless communication
In The Brave New Unwired World, the CEO of one of today's hottest wireless businesses explores the latest thinking and trends in the exciting world of digital wireless communication and boldly predicts the future of this hot new field. He acquaints readers with the amazing technologies involved and the no less amazing profit opportunities opening up around them. Drawing upon his unique access to top management at Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, Verizon, IBM, Cisco, Psion, Microsoft, and other key players, he profiles those who are vying to be among the first to cash in on the wireless revolution while holding their own against brilliant upstarts, government regulation, and the threat of extinction by competitors who appear from virtually nowhere, at any moment.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

We're on the verge of ubiquitous connectivity, says technowizard Alex Lightman. His Brave New Unwired World: The Digital Big Bang and the Infinite Internet might read like science fiction, but smart money is betting on his predictions of wearable computing devices and cheap-as-water wireless bandwidth coming true. Even those who don't stand to make a gigabuck or two off fourth-generation wireless tech will race through Lightman's prose with abandon. He makes the future sound fun. While he can't promise personal jetpacks, his descriptions of simple, elegant communicators will make every red-blooded nerd drool.

Brave New Unwired World is more than just next year's Sharper Image catalog, though. Lightman has been watching trends in commerce, government, and technical research, and points out things to watch for in the first decade of the 21st century. American dollars, European regulators, and Asian factories, he predicts, will combine to change the world yet again. It's a fair bet that Aldous Huxley didn't see Brave New Unwired World coming, but we can be thankful that Dr. Lightman did. --Rob Lightner

Review

"...a thoroughly researched and technical piece..." (Information Age, July 2002)

"...a timely and valuable introduction to the fourth generation of cellular networks..." (Infoconomy, 1 July 2002)

"an interesting insight into the potential future of wireless technology and communications. It's offered with authority and passion..." (M2 Best Books, 15 August 2002)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (March 8, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471441104
• ISBN-13: 978-0471441106
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,308,646 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alex Lightman is a well-known policy analyst in the fields of international relations, high technology, job creation, social media, and telecommunications. He has provided testimony and presentations to the U.S. Congress, the Departments of State and Defense, and the Intelligence Community. His popular work on 4G wireless broadband, Brave New Unwired World: The Digital Big Bang and the Infinite Internet, has become a reference work and college textbook. His articles have appeared in The Chief Executive, Internet World, The Futurist, Red Herring, IntellectualCapital.com, Field Force Automation, and H+ Magazine, and he has appeared many hundreds of times on radio and TV shows, including his Brave New Unwired World technology fashion shows, seen by millions in 25 countries.

Lightman has advised dozens of governments on technology, especially policy related to the future of the Internet, and provided transition plans for the New Internet (IPv6, Internet Protocol version 6) to the U.S. DoD and NATO. He was instrumental in the U.S. government mandate to standardize the New Internet for all federal departments. Lightman is an MIT graduate and attended Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He has extensive experience in IT, expert systems, foreign policy, and U.S. Congressional initiatives, the oil and gas industry, and international financial relations.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very timely, May 2, 2002

By 

"eyeborg" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brave New Unwired World: The Digital Big Bang and the Infinite Internet (Hardcover)

This book is essential reading for anyone interested in knowing
where the future of wireless communications will go.

The book touches on many of the important topics of our time,
including pervasive computing (ubiqcomp) and wearable computing.
Indeed, much of the future demand for wireless communication
will come from digital eyeglasses (computer vision systems
built into eyeglasses, visual prosthetics, Global eHealth, etc.).

For teaching courses related to or using wireless communiction,
even if this book is not being used as the main text,
I would highly recommend the book as additional optional reading.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A compass for wireless business and investment, October 11, 2003

By 

Christopher Harz (Topanga, CA, Pepperdine Student) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brave New Unwired World: The Digital Big Bang and the Infinite Internet (Hardcover)

A thouroughly researched, detailed book on what direction wireless and ubiquitous computing are going in. There may be those who shake their heads at how much these new sensors/appliances/gadgets will influence our lives, but the book lays out the data and trends methodically. This is must reading for any manager of a high-tech company or anyone investing in same. The book is highly unusual in its level of illustration, examples and background data -- many other books on future technology, in contrast, offer only oceans of opinionated verbiage with little to back it up. Any reader alert to opportunity should get a very high ROI out of buying this book.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great material but a disjointed presentation, June 29, 2003

By 

"[e-mail]" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brave New Unwired World: The Digital Big Bang and the Infinite Internet (Hardcover)

Brave New Unwired World addresses an exciting genre, personal wireless systems. The book also brings up and discusses many of the latest technologies in mobile computing.

Where this book falls short is it's presentation of more complex areas of mobile computing. Instead of building up to deeper issues with background and supporting information, there are spikes of depth. Specifically, terms and concepts will be brought up with little or no supporting background. And just as suddenly the depth will be abandoned, jumping to a new point at a low level. This makes for a very disjointed presentation.

If this were the only work in the field I would rate it higher. However there are similar works that are far superior (ex. Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution by Howard Rheingold) and cover the same subject matter.