FIR Book Reviews

In their last book, “The Age of Context,” Robert Scoble and Shel Israel explored the future of the smartphone and how it would be used once we reach the convergence of mobile devices, social media, big data, sensors, location technology. Even though we haven’t come close to realizing the vision set forth in this book, Scoble and Israel project even further in their new book, “The Fourth Transformation: How Augmented Reality & Artificial intelligence Will Change Everything.”

In this FIR Book Review, digital media thought leader Richard Binhammer joins FIR host Shel Holtz to review and discuss the book and its themes.

From the book description on Amazon:

“Ten years from today, the center of our digital lives will no longer be the smart phone, but device that looks like ordinary eyeglasses: except those glasses will have settings for Virtual and Augmented Reality. What you really see and what is computer generated will be mixed so tightly together, that we won’t really be able to tell what is real and what is illusion.

Robert Scoble and Shel Israel

“We won’t need to search online with words, because there will be a new Visual Web 100 times larger than the current Internet, and we will find things by images, buy things by brands, or just by looking at a logo on the jacket of a passerby. Language will be irrelevant, and a merchant in a developing world will have access to global markets.

“Medical devices will cure schizophrenia, allow quadriplegics to walk. People will be able to touch and feel objects and other people who are not actually there for conversations, games and perhaps intimate experiences.

“From Kindergarten to on-the-job, learning will become experiential. Children will visit great battlefields and tour historic places in VR rather than read about them in textbooks. Med students and surgeons will learn and practice on virtual humans rather than cadavers; oil rig workers will understand how to handle emergencies, before the ever leave the home office.”

About Richard Binhammer

Richard Binhammer

Richard Binhammer has always worked with great leaders and companies. In his 30 years plus career, he has focused on problem-solving, organized change, communications, and public support. Binhammer has always found himself in a position of respectful influence. He started in politics building electoral coalitions and managing election campaigns.

Shortly after this, he advised organizations and companies on solutions to public policy issues. He was involved in lobbying and public affairs and moved onto public relations and corporate communications. During this time, Richard developed policies related to the emerging online world and how these policies were having an impact and changing how we think about communications and corporate reputations.

The Fourth Transformation: How Augmented Reality & Artificial Intelligence Will Change Everything

Publisher: Patrick Brewster Press

Purchase at Amazon US (US Kindle edition), Amazon Canada (Canada Kindle edition), or Amazon UK (UK Kindle edition). Audio versions are also available for Amazon stores.

The post FIR Book Review: The Fourth Transformation by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Blockchain technology — developed as the foundation of Bitcoin — will have an impact on business and society that we are only beginning to understand. While financial services will be the first industry to experience some foundational changes as a result of blockchain, the technology could ultimately change the nature of how work gets done, how organizations are structured, and how the world works.

In this FIR Book Review, FIR host Shel Holtz reviews “Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and the World” by Don Tapscott (author of “Wikinomics,” “Grown Up Digital,” and a number of other books) and Alex Tapscott, CEO and founder of Northwest Passage Ventures, an advisory firm building blockchain companies.

For those interested in learning more about blockchain and following blockchain news, some good resources include…

Also, listen to the FIR Interview with Phil Gomes about blockchain, recorded on November 11, 2015.

Don  Tapscott presented a TED Talk on blockchain, which provides a good introduction to his book:

 Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and the World

Publisher: Portfolio

Purchase at Amazon US (US Kindle edition), Amazon Canada (Canada Kindle edition), or Amazon UK (UK Kindle edition). Audio versions are also available for Amazon stores.

The post FIR Book Review: Blockchain Revolution by Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Author Shel Israel calls his latest book — Lethal Generosity: Contextual Technology & The Competitive Edge — a sequel to Age of Context, the book he co-authored with Robert Scoble. In this FIR Book Review, Richard Binhammer joins Shel Holtz for a conversation about the book and its relevance to the communications industry.

From the book description on Amazon:

“The previous book reported on the rapid convergence of five technology forces—mobile (and wearables), social media, the Internet of Things (IoT), location technologies, and data creating the promising—but occasionally freaky—sensation that our devices are starting to know us better than the closest people in our lives.

“The story picks up two years later in Lethal Generosity, where the freakiness has faded and retailers and other public-facing companies are rapidly adopting these new technologies.

Shel Israel

“This time, instead of technologies converging with each other these contextual forces are converging with humans in the form of Millennials the first generation of digital natives. The book examines them as customers, employees and competitors and advises companies run by older cultures on how to adapt to this significant marketplace change.

“The result of all this is that power has shifted from sellers and brand efforts to buyers who use social media to influence each other. Companies who ignore this shift do so at their peril. Companies who do adjust will flourish, the author argues.

“Just what should brands and merchants do: Israel prescribes a policy of Lethal Generosity. By being kind to your customers at every touch-point you will prevent any customer attempts to hijack them through traditional marketing.”

About Richard Binhammer

Richard Binhammer

Richard Binhammer has always worked with great leaders and companies. In his 30 years plus career, he has focused on problem-solving, organized change, communications and public support. Binhammer has always found himself in a position of respectful influence. He started in politics building electoral coalitions and managing election campaigns.

Shortly after this he advised organizations and companies on solutions to public policy issues. He was involved in lobbying and public affairs and moved onto public relations and corporate communications. During this time, Richard developed policies related to the emerging online world and how these policies were having an impact and changing how we think about communications and corporate reputations.

Lethal Generosity: Contextual Technology & The Competitive Edge

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Purchase at Amazon US (US Kindle edition), Amazon Canada (Canada Kindle edition), or Amazon UK (UK Kindle edition). Audio versions are also available for Amazon stores.

The post Book Review: Lethal Generosity by Shel Israel appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

As a strategic communicator, David Axelrod has seen it all. The communications brains behind Barack Obama’s presidential election victories in 2008 and 2012, Axelrod has navigated significant communications crises and developed strategic messaging that moved millions. He shared these stories and lessons in a terrific book, Believer: My Forty Years in Politics. In an FIR Book Review, Kevin Anselmo and Chip Griffin talk about what they learned from the book and what it means for communicators across various industries. The podcast review is based on Kevin’s blog post about the book.

Believer: My Forty Years in Politics

Publisher: Penguin Press

Purchase at Amazon US (Kindle version), Amazon Canada (Kindle version), or Amazon UK (Kindle version).

The post Book Review: Lessons for Communicators from David Axelrod’s “Believer” appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Robert Phillips stunned the PR agency world when he walked away from his prestigious position as CEO of Edelman EMEA. Phillips explains his decision in Trust Me, PR is Dead, in which he calls for an end to the PR industry and advocates instead for a new model of public leadership (as the replacement for PR) and public value (the role of corporations which, Phillips believes, need to adopt a reinvented kind of capitalism that focuses as much on contributing to society as to their bottom lines).

Phillips came to Edelman when the agency he cofounded — Jackie Cooper PR — was acquired. While at Jackie Cooper, he was instrumental in the development of ground-breaking campaigns, including “Hello Boys” for Wonderbra.

Today he is co-founder of Jericho Chambers, which helps organizations become the kinds of organizations he believes corporations need to be — a vision he articulates in his book, which Huffington post called “Thrilling…a passionate revolution.”

FIR co-host Shel Holtz has a different perspective, which he shares in this FIR book review.

Trust Me, PR is Dead

Publisher: Unbound

Purchase at Amazon US (Kindle version not yet available), Amazon Canada (Kindle version not yet available), or Amazon UK (Kindle version).

The post Book Review: Trust Me, PR Is Dead by Robert Phillips appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Geeks Bearing Gifts: Imagining New Futures for News is CUNY journalism professor Jeff Jarvis’s latest book, exploring the pressures on current news models and the directions news organizations need to go in order to thrive in the digital world. FIR co-host Shel Holtz reviews the book, which has implications for organizational communicators, particularly in imagining the role of media relations in the future Jarvis imagines.

From the book description on Amazon:

“Technology has disrupted the news industry– its relationships, forms, and business models – but also provides no end of opportunities for improving, expanding, reimagining, and sustaining journalism. Geeks Bearing Gifts: Imagining New Futures for News is a creative, thought-provoking and entertaining exploration of the possible future(s) of news by Professor Jeff Jarvis, who leads the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

“To Jarvis, journalism helps a community better organize its knowledge so it can better organize itself: “But we in the field came to define ourselves less by our value and mission and more by our media and tools — ink on pulp or slick paper, sound or images over airwaves. Now we have new tools to exploit. Those tools require new skills and create new value. But at the core, we serve citizens and communities.” He offers not a single definitive future of journalism and news, but a range of possibilities depending on how journalists and journalism evolve – with the help of the “geeks” whose advances in media technology offer many opportunities for journalists and media entrepreneurs who are willing to think creatively and take risks.

“Jarvis, one of the preeminent voices on emerging forms of journalism, news delivery, and community engagement, advises many media companies, startups, and foundations. He is a former president and creative director of Advance.net, the online arm of Advance Publications, and was the creator and founding editor of Entertainment Weekly; Sunday editor and associate publisher of the New York Daily News; TV critic for TV Guide and People; a columnist on the San Francisco Examiner; and assistant city editor and reporter for the Chicago Tribune.

Get this podcast:

Geeks Bearing Gifts: Imagining New Futures for News

Publisher: CUNY Journalism Press

Purchase at Amazon US (US Kindle edition), Amazon Canada (Kindle only), or Amazon UK (UK Kindle edition).

The book is also available for reading at no cost on Medium.

The post Geeks Bearing Gifts by Jeff Jarvis appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

The Mobile Mind Shift: Engineer Your Business to Win in the Mobile Moment provides the first comprehensive overview of what it takes to develop mobile resources that accommodate the growing expectations of users who increasingly turn first to mobile devices.

FIR co-host Shel Holtz reviews the book written by three Forrester Research analysts: Ted Schadler, technology analyst; Josh Bernoff, senior vice president of Idea Development; and Julie Ask, mobile analyst.

From the book description on Amazon:

“Mobile has reprogrammed your customers’ brains.

“Your customers now turn to their smartphones for everything. What’s tomorrow’s weather? Is the flight on time? Where’s the nearest store, and is this product cheaper there? Whatever the question, the answer is on the phone. This Pavlovian response is the mobile mind shift — the expectation that I can get what I want, anytime, in my immediate context.

“Your new battleground for customers is this mobile moment — the instant in which your customer is seeking an answer. If you’re there for them, they’ll love you; if you’re not, you’ll lose their business. Both entrepreneurial companies like Dropbox and huge corporations like Nestlé are winning in that mobile moment. Are you?

“Based on 200 interviews with entrepreneurs and major companies across the globe, The Mobile Mind Shift is the first book to explain how you can exploit mobile moments.”

The Mobile Mind Shift: Engineer Your Business to Win in the Mobile Moment

Publisher: Groundswell Press

Purchase at Amazon US (US Kindle edition), Amazon Canada (Canada Kindle Edition), or Amazon UK (UK Kindle edition).

The post The Mobile Mind Shift, by Ted Schadler, Josh Bernoff, and Julie Ask appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.