Road Warriors: Dreams and Nightmares Along the Information Highway [Mass Market Paperback]

Daniel Burstein (Author), David Kline (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1996

Like an epic saga of corporate rivalry, scientific discovery and social commentary, Road Warriors offers a vivid, human-scale narrative of the warring personalities and strategies driving the digital technology revolution. The authors analyze the strategies necessary to navigate this ever-evolving competitive environment.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It's Barbarians at the Gate meets Future Shock in this dramatic behind-the-scenes account of the battle over America's technological and economic future. The first book to offer a vivid, human-scale narrative of the warring personalities and strategies driving the Digital Revolution. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Unlike books that hype the national information superhighway (e.g., Nicholas Negroponte's Being Digital, LJ 2/15/95) or criticize it (e.g., Clifford Stoll's Silicon Snake Oil, LJ 3/1/95), this work presents a balanced, comprehensive account of the benefits and problems associated with the digital revolution. Burstein (Turning the Tables, LJ 1/93) and Kline, an editor of Wired magazine, conducted over 100 interviews with industry leaders in computers and communications, technology visionaries, and policy experts, some of which are recorded in appendixes. The authors offer chapters on the Internet, virtual reality, the usability of computer products, the gap between information "haves" and "have nots," the global challenge, and promoting competition among companies in computers and communications. The authors pay much attention to the contest for supremacy in the lucrative information markets of tomorrow. This readable and informative book belongs in all libraries.
Leonard Grundt, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, N.Y.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Plume (September 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452271053
• ISBN-13: 978-0452271050
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,000,790 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent book, July 16, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Road Warriors: Dreams and Nightmares Along the Information Highway (Mass Market Paperback)

Ok the book is now 'old' in that it was published in 1995, but you are not going to find anything better on the business of the 'information highway' (I know that term irritates people, but the point is that this book is about more than the just Internet, it is about the world the net is embedded within).

The book is about the business war over communication and transmission, that will effect everybody who uses the Internet or other 'new media', the massive mergers and collaborations which effect us all. It discusses High Definition TV, the video on demand problem, the fight over the phone business, stock market frenzy over 'information stock', the problems when so much money can be made by so few people, what happens to the 'middle class' etc. It is a call for us to think about the future based upon a fairly detailed consideration of what is happening now

some quotes:

"design and use of new technology necessarily entails contests over political power"

"companies.. are continuing to invest feverishly against the evidence of most market research and historical experience"

"one of the Digital Revolution's central laws is that the more uncertain one is about exactly how to profit from digital technology, the more lyrical one becomes in describing it"

"As the rate of new wealth creation fueled by digital technology rises, the number of people required to produce it is decreasing"

There are few books on the so called 'information revolution', which anyone interested in the subject will get something out of. This is a book for business, investors, academic analysts, politicians, and nearly everyone else.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Panoramic Tour of Internet and everything it affects.., March 17, 2007

By 

P. Ganti - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Road Warriors: Dreams and Nightmares Along the Information Highway (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is a whirlwind of all things in our life that gets affected by Internet. I have read both "Being Digital" and "Silicon Snake Oil" and I agreed with both those views. I read this title and it blew me away.I am not sure why this book is out of print and why they are selling it for $0.01

The key reason is this: This book was published in 1995 and I can cite companies that were formed in 1999 book by taking a line from the book. Entire magazine articles are written simply elaborating the content of a single paragraph in this book. Its not the labels or company names that are cited here which are important but the fact that the key ideas mentioned are ensconced in todays' labryinthine evolution of the Net.

Another way of being impressed with this book can be the sheer prophetic nature of it. We can never evaluate anything against the future because of lack of materialization. Whereas, we can take this kind of a book and lay down its theses and look at reality to see how it panned. Try it for yourself and recollect how many other works of literature had a similar impact.For example Page 139 Bullet #3 contains the idea of youtube.com

If you are anywhere connected to the Internet Industry then you gotta read this book. If you are in any other industry and wanted to chalk out the perimeter of the net then this is a mighty good investment of your time.

5.0 out of 5 stars BELONGS ON EVERY TECH START UP CEO'S DESK/SHELF, March 7, 2005

By 

Joyce Schwarz "Joyce Schwarz" (Marina Del Rey, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Road Warriors: Dreams and Nightmares Along the Information Highway (Hardcover)

I had to chuckle when I saw that this book is available at .01 in the used books on Amazon.com -- it is such a terrific book--- worth it's weight (which is about 1 lb) in gold and more :)). Fabulous insight into what it's like to deal with Silicon Valley and the future-- all relevant today-- Covers the Internet, Games, Smart TV or "PC In Drag" and much more as we venture in into the Brave New World of today. Written in 1995 it is a prescient approach to today and tomorrow's business world involving technology, changing culture and telephony and more. Kline was a contributing writer at WIRED and Burstein is/was Senior Advisor to the famous Blackstone Group...still ahead of the cure. It says its the book about the Information Highway-- it's really about doing business in the information age --called NOW.