"Perfectly placed to tell us what's really new about [the] second-generation Web."--Los Angeles Times
Business visionary and bestselling author David Weinberger charts how as business, politics, science, and media move online, the rules of the physical world--in which everything has a place--are upended. In the digital world, everything has its places, with transformative effects:
· Information is now a social asset and should be made public, for anyone to link, organize, and make more valuable.
· There's no such thing as "too much" information. More information gives people the hooks to find what they need.
· Messiness is a digital virtue, leading to new ideas, efficiency, and social knowledge.
· Authorities are less important than buddies. Rather than relying on businesses or reviews for product information, customers trust people like themselves.
With the shift to digital music standing as the model for the future in virtually every industry, Everything Is Miscellaneous shows how anyone can reap rewards from the rise of digital knowledge.
Human beings are information omnivores: we are constantly collecting, labeling, and organizing data. But today, the shift from the physical to the digital is mixing, burning, and ripping our lives apart. In the past, everything had its one place--the physical world demanded it--but now everything has its places: multiple categories, multiple shelves. Simply put, everything is suddenly miscellaneous.
In Everything Is Miscellaneous, David Weinberger charts the new principles of digital order that are remaking business, education, politics, science, and culture. In his rollicking tour of the rise of the miscellaneous, he examines why the Dewey decimal system is stretched to the breaking point, how Rand McNally decides what information not to include in a physical map (and why Google Earth is winning that battle), how Staples stores emulate online shopping to increase sales, why your children's teachers will stop having them memorize facts, and how the shift to digital music stands as the model for the future in virtually every industry. Finally, he shows how by "going miscellaneous," anyone can reap rewards from the deluge of information in modern work and life.
From A to Z, Everything Is Miscellaneous will completely reshape the way you think--and what you know--about the world.
Entertaining and full of interesting information, but poorly organized:
First, the criticism. Maybe it's just me. But I like a book that is organized. One where the author lays out the structure of the book, and then follows the structure. Where the skeleton carries and gives form to the flesh. This book does not have that. Of course, there is some structure here. The book is separated into chapters. Each chapter has a title. The stories in each chapter have a relation to the chapter title. That gives some flow to the book. But the structure is not nearly enough.... more info
Based ojn bug misconception:
interesting ideas but mostly cheer-leading for web 2.0. the book is at least somewhat worth reading in that he brings up key issues, even if his analysis of them is flawed. most of the book is based strongly on an argument with a fundamental error in the premise. according to the author, card catalogs obey a strict organizational theme, but data bases do not. actually they do, and are in ways even stricter and more ordered. The computer essentially imposes order even in our "miscillaneous" groupings,... more info
Everything is Miscellaneous, but . . .:
. . . unlike the Internet, our time is not infinite. So, while the Internet has allowed for total randomness, for the sake of each individual's time, there needs to be some order. And, while it's nice to think that tags and other technologies will do this, so far, they have created their own disorder and randomness. So, what has actually happened is a site like Wikipedia has become our defacto "rule of order". Just do a search on any topic. Most likely, the Wikipedia entry will be in the top 3. And of... more info
Valuable Overview:
I totally disagree with the reviewers that pontificate against this book. It is not a techno-geek book, or a philosophy book, it is simply a common sense overview that I personally consider to be educated, helpful to the point of essential. At $16, with the Amazon discount, this book is a bargain. I started with the index, and immediately discovered Meta-Data had 18 lines. The book opens with examples from Staples ("hacking the physical") to Apple iTunes (end of bundling) and I am immediately... more info
As businesses go miscellaneous, information gets chopped into smaller and smaller pieces. But it also escapes its leash--adding to a pile that can be sorted and arranged by anyone with a Web browser and a Net connection. In fact, information exhibits bird-like "flocking behavior," joining with other information that adds value to it, creating swarms that help customers and, ultimately, the businesses from which the information initially escaped.
