Customer Reviews

Release 2.0

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

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.

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?

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.

In an attempt to explain how important our new e-world is Dyson comes off sounding like some form of low level illuminati in this work. And, no, I didn't like this book at all.

Dyson's choice of subject matter is a difficult one. Usually by the time a book in this genre gets published it's contents are outdated or stale. Most authors use try to counteract this is by rehashing all the known universal truths on a subject in the hope of shedding some new light for the reader. No matter how hard I worked I just couldn't seem to find that here. Dyson's contents are just more of the same.

I take full responsibility for not liking this book on myself. I want to live in this new world by engaging it, to the best of my abilities, head on. And, I feel this type of nouveau linguistics does those of us who are trying to live here a disservice.

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.

Unlike that silly Negroponte, this is a book about how the Internet/Web revolution will affect our lives, and how our lives and our institutions will affect it. This book is so well written that it seems effortless - therin lies the disappointment of some - good analysis does not always lead to unexpected or "profound" conclusions. Sometimes the truth is obvious. What is so great is that she gives her reasoning as well as her conclusions - this enables the reader to refine his or her own analysis by adding further decision factors based on knowledge or experience. In other words, this book teaches you how to think clearly about the Digital Age, or any other subject. What is important is that she is not so close to the problem, ala Negroponte, that she looses perspective. That is the great failing of many - they know so much about the Internet and so little about the rest of the real world - including history, sociology, politics, and people. It is true that she is as much a reporter as a thinker, but this is still the best distillation of what is likely to happen in the Digital Age.

I agree with The New York Times Book Review, Derek Bickerton (see above) - Release 2.0 is a good primer for the neophyte. As someone who is a user of the net and familar with the issues but is not a net expert, I did not find anything new in Release 2.0. Its a regurgitation of old ideas using worn out and obvious examples. In some ways, it presents a simplistic view of the Digital Age. After all the build-up of Dyson as a "respected digerati" who has the gift "for thinking current trends through to the next logical stage" (Business Week, Neil Gross, see above review), I was completely disappointed in the book.

Bought this book figuring the self-professed "Digerati" would have some keen future vision of wired culture. Completely disappointed. Very pompous and full of completely played ideas for using the internet. I figure, based on this sleeper I can go around calling myself a guru too!!

For those of us who are not "wired" to the web, (i.e., we do not spend a great deal of time searching or purchasing, mainly e-mail), this book is very informative of how things should (and hopefully will) operate as the web evolves. Ms. Dyson has obviously spent a great deal of time thinking about social issues as they relate to the web (or would it be web issues as they relate to society). The book is informative and educational to nontechies. Overall, a good read.

Well after reading through the other reviews, I just wanted to mention that the contents of "Release 2.0" were very well documented from an "unwired novice's" point of view. I'm on the roaded to becoming "wired" and found this information extremely useful. If there are others trying to figure out the ways and means of the web and some history on it, this is a good place to start if you have no other sources to confirm with. She did not seem biased in anyway and left the reader to make up his/her own mind. Her suggestions and opinions were just that and she let you know that from the start. I have already recommended the book to several new "webbies". Aloha.