It is fairly unusual for me to take a week to read a book, but the new book by Brian Solis is one of those books you need to take nice and slow to get all the nuances in it. I think personally that this is Brian Solis at his best, this is him at his peak performance, and as his skill as a writer. The book is that good, with very good stories and homilies to help sink home what he is saying. In many ways social media has transformed us all into highly connected people, with quality online relationships, and new ways of getting information into the hands of consumers.
I like the way that people are broken out into various types, from passive people who consume but take no action, to spammers, observers, trolls, and the perpetually whiny that live with us every day. The internet is a macrocosm of who we are as a society. If anything we are building the very first universal global society with its own culture, standards and morality. Everyone is invited in, people, companies, government, military, and the occasional passerby. Brian captures that in all its detail, with guide posts and road maps to how these work, and how these fail. The birth of the first global society tied together in all its functions and all its glory is going to be an interesting birth, and we are fortunate enough to be here at this time, helping, hindering, and changing to accommodate the growth and formation of that society.
There are so many things that stand out about this book from my own personal observation of the classroom and my students, to the interactions I see at large gatherings of people that this book was easy enough to bring home and make comparisons to my own real and online life. Brian hits all the major things I have seen on the D-list on the internet, and in my own interactions with both online and in person realities.
This is why this book rocks, this is why I get this, I see this every day in the school room and in my own life. Go into any Starbucks, most are connected in one way or another to the internet. Go into my classroom and you will see students fact checking me, using the internet for support, and engaging with their friends when the other students are catching up to the quicker students. He hits this one on the head, rather than haves and have not's, we are in the era of are you connected. While the book will not transform my life and make me a multi-zillionaire, what it does do is validate my own experience on line and in person. What he sees I have seen, what he has experience I have experienced, we all live here in one way or another, and the most impoverished person is the one without connections, contacts, or a visible online life.
While he really does not go into the downsides of a public life, that is also just fine. We are just starting out, and observations matter at this point. Welcome to the global society, we are all here in one way or another, what we do with it matters. How companies intersect with the new global society matters, how people intersect with companies, authority, schools, and others matters. Brian captures that beautifully, making this the most important book you should read this year if you are interested in how the world of online and offline are intermixed, and valuable to those who chose to live life that way.
Rating this 5 of 5 stars, as a must read for anyone who is interested in what changes we have to make to accommodate and be successful in the world's first global culture.
