The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google, Nicholas Carr, W.W. Norton Company, 2008, 236 pages, $25.95, ISBN 978-0-393-06228-1
Nick Carr likes to stir up readers of his weblog Rough Type, writing about technical issues and the business of technology, often taking a contrarian view of the movers and shakers and their understanding of the world they helped create and are helping to build. His new book, The Big Switch deals with Carr's (and many others) view that the computer is now the Internet and that the importance of an always on connection, with applications and data center services in the cloud, is as significant a development as that of the personal computer itself. He concludes that utility computing is the next wave and might just enable the rise of artificial intelligence as well.
I found the book hard to put down. While it is not a page turner per se, if you are a technologist, businessperson, or if you just like reading about technology, pick up a copy. It will help you understand what is going on here at the start of the 21st century. Carr is adept at breaking down jargon and technical concepts in an understandable way without getting stuck in the detail. Since I read the book at my day job it was necessary that I break it up into several sessions over a couple of weeks. I worried that I would lose the continuity a reader can find by reading a work in it's entirety in a short time. To my surprise this didn't happen, the chapters are pretty well self-contained and it was not hard to get back into the story each time.
Carr uses the rise of the electric grid to illustrate his view that utility computing will evolve (is evolving?) in a similar fashion. He avoids the trap that some authors fall into when they connect the dots too closely between the past and present. The similarities he highlights serve to educate and explain. While I am not an expert in the history he describes, all facts seemed to me to be well researched and accurate. I found myself hoping that he would find a parallel for cheap government power in the Western U.S. and the new model of utility computing, thus enabling the crossing of the Digital Divide in the last mile, but he can't be all things to all people I suppose.
I must add that I'm an avid reader of Mr. Carr's weblog. He uses his blog to sort out ideas and get feedback on his ruminations. That may be why I found the book so interesting. Prior familiarity with the author, his ideas and his writing style, can prejudice an evaluation. That being said I'll argue that The Big Switch stands on its own and is worth your time.
11:53:34 AM 
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