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Title: Overconnected

Subtitle: The Promise and Threat of the Internet

Author: William Davidow

Narrator: L. J Ganser

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-10-11

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 11 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Technology

Publisher's Summary:

In Overconnected, Bill Davidow explains how the almost miraculous success of the Internet in connecting the world through the Worldwide Web has also created a unique set of hazards, in effect overconnecting us, with the direst of consequences.

The benefits of our recently arrived-at state of connectivity have been myriad - from the ease with which it has been possible to buy a new house to the convenience of borrowing and investing money profitably. But the luxuries of the connected age have taken on a momentum all of their own. By counter-intuitively anatomizing how being overconnected tends to create systems of positive feedback that have largely negative consequences, Davidow explains everything from the recent subprime mortgage crisis to the meltdown of Iceland, from the loss of people's privacy to the spectacular fall of the stock market - all because we were so miraculously wired together.

Explaining how such symptoms of Internet connection as unforeseeable accidents and thought contagions acted to accelerate the downfall and make us permanently vulnerable to catastrophe, Davidow places our recent experience in historical perspective and offers a set of practical steps to minimize similar disasters in the future.

Critic Reviews:

Overconnected has the wonderful effect of explaining seemingly unrelated problems in a way that instantly makes sense once it is pointed out, and that also suggests feasible corrections. One of the pioneers of the modern technology shows how the unanticipated effects of the Internet are distorting economics, politics, international relations, and individual lives. The book is clear, original, and worth being widely read. (James Fallows, author and National Correspondent for The Atlantic)

"The technology genie is out of the bottle.... [Overconnected] is a great read that is part historical, part anecdotal.... [T]he book addresses a universal audience. Its key message is really to anyone who uses technology." (Paul Otinelli, CEO, Intel Corporation)

Members Reviews:

Disappointed in Davidow after Marketing High Tech

First, Davidow's "Marketing High Technology" is a personal top 5 business selection. It provides a powerful insiders view of technical marketing with exceptional working first hand examples and bold (but well documented) theories. So perhaps my expectations of "Overconnected" were too lofty. That said, even objectively this work falls far short of properly examining such a bold premise. A better title for this book would be "Superconnected" and the subtitle should be reexamined as well.

Unfortunately this book cannot determine if it wants to be overtly scholarly or pleasantly anecdotal. Even within paragraphs the book seems to switch back and forth. The book is not well organized and details too well the distant past at the expense the recent past like the subprime meltdown.

I certainly see intrigue in Davidow's premise and some items are well covered. The book does in fact lend some insight to compounding of errors by internet tools. However I am disappointed that Davidow as a technologist did not see that many specific issues could be addressed by technologists with the correct corporate and governmental oversight. The stronger point that Davidow makes is actually the compounded emotional frenzy that a high level of connection can cause.