Expectation: a survey of how the (relatively) new tools of online collaboration impact society and business.

Actual outcome: I don’t really know, the book was so badly written that I kinda lost the point of what they were saying around page 3…

So, is the book really that bad?

Well I have to admit they do have some interesting stories and anecdotes in there (let me summarize some of them here so that you don’t have to read the book):

• GoldCorp used an online competition to find gold
• Proctor & Gamble used InnoCentive to outsource much of their R&D (with great success)
• Nettwerk – an innovative Canadian music label that actually embraces the digital age
• Novartis publishes a free dataset from years of research into the genetic foundations of type 2 diabetes

There’s a bunch of other interesting case studies like the above, but you can get a sense for most of them from the notes at the end of the book. My question is: why is the book 319 pages?

Sure, maybe the book wouldn’t have sold at the 60 pages that the content actually deserves. But then again maybe the authors should have stuck to their principles that they’re advocating and published it on a Wiki! (where it would have quickly been edited down to a remove the 300x repetition).

In short, if you woke up today after a 20-year coma and you’re looking to find out what this whole web thing is about, maybe you should  buy the book. Otherwise, just google for the above stories for some interesting reading and don’t bother. I’m going to try and sell mine, it’s just taking up useful space.

And don’t forget to paradigm shift your synergies going forward! *

* Paraphrasing of said book

The Jungle
This is a story describing the horrors of the Chicago meat packing industry at the turn of the 20th century. The story follows a large fictional family of immigrants from Lithuania coming to the land of opportunities, and hoping for a better life. Instead they end up being enslaved by the Chicago meat packers, and starved to death one by one. This a very heart-wrenching story, and definitely not for those with a weak stomach. When the book was published in 1906, it was heavily censored and most of the worst details of human suffering were removed. What remained were the countless examples of unsanitary and plain dirty conditions in which America’s meat was prepared. The final outcome was that the book caused an uproar that culminated in the creation of the Pure Foods and Drugs Act (1906) and the eventually FDA.

The last third of the book is full of idealistic social propaganda, which makes you cringe a bit when you read it. This is why the last 100 pages took me longer to read than the rest of the book taken together. Still, the book is a very read, from both a historical and a personal perspective. More than once I’d finish reading a few chapters of the book and I was pretty depressed for the rest of the day. But overall reading it makes me appreciate much more all the little luxuries that we take for granted. Like, oh I dont know, not working from 6am till 9pm in a dirty, stinky, scorching room.

Agile Web Development with Rails
I’ve started learning Ruby on Rails a few weeks ago, and was recommended this book by a few people, and I’ve found it to be just excellent, so I’m forwarding the recommendation here. It starts out with a tutorial that covers many of the features of Rails by building a shopping cart application. The second half of the book covers most of the features in pretty excruciating details. Along the way they manage to cram in a whole lot of best practices, as well as good writing. I haven’t gone much further than reading the book yet, so we’ll see how well it prepares me for actually writing Rails applications, but it’s definitely a smooth and easy to read introduction.

More recommendations to come shortly.