Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web (Hardcover)

by David Weinberger (Author) "WHEN MICHAEL IAN CAMPBELL used an online alias, no one was suspicious..." (more)
Key Phrases: default philosophy, small pieces loosely joined, Bidder's Edge, Metcalfe's Law, New York Times (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
David Weinberger's Small Pieces Loosely Joined does not merely celebrate the World Wide Web; it attempts to make a case that the institution has completely remodeled many of the world's self-perceptions. The book does so entertainingly, if not convincingly, and is a lively collection of epigrammatic phrases (the Web is "'place-ial' but not spatial"; "on the Web everyone will be famous to 15 people"), as well as illustrations of these changes. There are intriguing assertions: that the Web is "broken on purpose" and that its many pockets of erroneous information and its available forums for disputing, say, manufacturers' hyperbole, let people feel more comfortable with their own inherent imperfections. At other times the book seems stale: it declares that the Web has disrupted long-held axioms about time, space, and knowledge retrieval and that it has dramatically rearranged notions of community and individuality. Weinberger's analysis, though occasionally facile and too relentlessly optimistic and overstated, is surely destined to be the subject of furious debate in chat rooms the cyber-world over. --H. O'Billovich

From Publishers Weekly
Weinberger (coauthor, The Cluetrain Manifesto) mixes popular philosophy and middle-aged-white-male experience to explore his simple Internet thesis: the Web permits people to connect based on soul, not body, and the importance of the Web is not economic, but spiritual. A philosophy professor turned marketing guy turned writer, Weinberger boasts an extremely likable mainstream intellectual persona, flashes of insight and genuine literary talent. But the aspect of his personality that drives this book his first solo effort is his tendency to question. "Yes, I am undeniably a 45-55 white suburban male, but it's demeaning to see it put down on paper as if that made me like every other 45-55 white guy trapped in the suburbs," he says, in a passage about demographics gathered by scheming marketers. "And while it may be statistically true that we 45-55 white suburban males will boost our spending on erasable pens if we see a sexy babe touch one to her lips in an ad, we resent the notion that we're programmable." With touchy-feely chapter titles like "Perfection," "Togetherness," "Matter" and "Hope," Weinberger leads readers through an exploration of the Web's implications beyond Amazon.com. And if his concepts at times smack of New Age sensitivity, they are, in a way, accurate. Weinberger, a frequent commentator on NPR's All Things Considered, celebrates the Internet's gift to its users: permission to be an individual in a virtual world we can tailor to our passionate, idea-driven taste. In writing about the Web, Weinberger has written about himself his own soul and his own unwieldy and evolving comprehension of the world.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1st edition (March 26, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738205435
• ISBN-13: 978-0738205434
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #879,995 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Web's first Cosmologist, July 14, 2002

By	Harvey Ardman (Rockport, ME USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If John Perry Barlow is the Internet's prophet and Sherry Turkle is its anthropologist, by writing "Small Pieces, Loosely Joined," David Weinberger has become its first cosmologist, its Stephen Hawking.

In this slender, very readable and sometimes laugh-out-loud book, Weinberger examines the meaning, impact and use of the Internet with great insight and wisdom. He left me understanding how profoundly important the Internet is and how deeply it is affecting our society. It's not just another technological advance...it changes everything.

I realize that some people just don't get it, won't get it and can't get it, despite the crystal clarity of Weinberger's prose. But some people never get it.

Even Alexander Graham Bell was initially convinced the phone would be best used for transmitting music over long distances and I believe there was a fellow by the name of Watson who predicted the US would never need more than five computers. If Weinberger had been around then and writing books about telephoine and computers, they might have better understood the potential of their creations.

If you want to understand what the Internet means for us today and what it might mean tomorrow, I can think of no better basis than "Small Pieces Loosely Joined." His ideas will resonate in your mind long after you've finished the book.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Small Pieces, Big Ideas, May 2, 2002

By	A. K. Adam (Durham NC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Thanks to The Newspaper of Record, we now know that Web is boring; the Web has gotten old, and the frontier thrills of exploration and discovery have evaporated. Fortunately, no one told David Weinberger.

Weinberger's book Small Pieces, Loosely Joined proposes not only that the Web isn't boring, but that the excitement is only just beginning. We haven't missed the main event, only the previews of coming attractions.

He sees the promise of greater things yet to come in the ways that culture's engagement with the Web has already begun to influence the English language. He adopts seven key terms ("space," "time," "perfection," togetherness," "knowledge," "matter," and "hope") and illustrates the ways that their conventional usage might be seen to apply simply and directly to the Web. Then he goes further to show how these terms warp and crack with the torsion engendered by their roles in articulating Web experiences. After they have circulated online, these terms return to colloquial use with changed textures--space, perfection, hope, all signify very differently after their circulation on the Web.

Weinberger gracefully invites technological newcomers into the party. He has a gift for epigrammatic phrases, and regularly summarizes his exposition in memorable sound bites. He cites both familiar and less well-known examples of ways the Web has changed over its brief history, and of ways the Web has changed us. The heart of the book, however, lies in Weinberger's ardent affirmation of the positive possibilities that the Web opens for humanity. Without concealing the seamier dimensions of the Web, he urges readers to take up the opportunity to be better people in new ways, online.

Thus far one might construe the book--at the prompting of its title--as a new, improved theory of the Web. That would miss the point: Weinberger really hits his stride not as a pitchman for e-commerce or a disneyfied futurama, but as a reflective advocate for humanity. The subtitle might more appropriately suggest that Weinberger here offers a theory of how human beings may live more richly human lives in conjunction with the Web.

This mixed thematic impetus provides a great strength to the book. Weinberger writes with passion addressed to his readers' passions, in a way that distinguishes his work from "For Dummies" introductions or technological snake-oil pitches. Weinberger sings the opportunities that reside in the Web not with a self-interested voice, but as one who earnestly wants others to share the excitement he feels.

The mixed thematics also set Weinberger up to frustrate some readers. A book as ambitious as this one will evoke the hopes and passions of its readers, and will inevitably disappoint some. More technically-inclined readers, for instance, may wish for more detail in the discussions of the Web itself. Some readers interested in media theory may wish for fewer anecdotes and more analysis.

But this is not a book that should satisfy readers; on its own terms, the book ought to push its readers to think beyond what Weinberger himself suggests (the book, like the Web, is far from being "perfect," and is paradoxically stronger for that imperfection). This is part of Weinberger's subtle exposition of his theme. In composing a meditation on unfamiliar modes of human self-expression, Weinberger appeals to--and stimulates--our inclination to reach further than the limits of what we presently imagine. Small Pieces, Loosely Joined is not only an extraordinarily apt, lapidary description of the Web--it's the right book at the right time. We should read it appreciatively, in the hope that once we've caught up to where Weinberger leads us, he will again point out to us ways that these practices with which we've grown familiar begin to have decidedly unfamiliar effects on our lives and imaginations.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Web = Human Authenticity, February 2, 2008

By	Darryl Parker (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web (Paperback)

My first comment is that in 2008, the book is a bit dated. I'd like to see an updated version in 2012 or so because I feel the social and philosophical statements are fundamental - the examples are just dated. I just ordered his most recent book, Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder, so I have hopes of some more up to date examples. I also think a 2nd edition could pay more attention to the evolving 3-D gaming and "Second Life" type phenomena which starts to give dimension to the "second world" describe by the author.

Weinberger's references to philosophical thought were unexpected and very helpful in my reading of this book. As someone involved in the web for many hours every day, it was refreshing to step outside of the grind and into the realm of the philosophy concerning the web. I would have liked to have seen some references to Kantian cognitive concepts which I think are applicable. I'll be so bold as to suggest the author might gain a few insights getting to know Kant.

I absolutely loved the discussion on the embodiment of knowledge. In my reading I have not seen any one so eloquently and succinctly connect the physical and mental worlds of intelligence. His discussion of the feasibility of AI through the utilization of the web as a tool for building new relationships and social groups (as we are seeing today). From page 142: "In a truly ironic way, the bodiless Web reminds us of the bodily truths we have always lived."

I disagree (and I think 2008 does also) with the downplay of the importance of video, graphics and audio communications in favor of the written word which Weinberger argues is the lingua franca. Perhaps this is something an update would address, but we have seen an explosion in the use and uses of video and found them to be much clearer and much closer to physical relationship than the written word could convey. The written word requires a certain command of it and in the chapter on "Matter", Weinberger fails to recognize that not everyone is a wordsmith. Multimedia brings higher authenticity to the web.

Overall, this is definitely a book that will be shared with fellow entrepreneurs and web enthusiasts. A great morning read and worthy enough to warrant additional reading from this talented author.