Customer Rating:  
Summary: The future of computing?
Comment: Nice discussion/analogy of the history of electric power generation and the future of computers. Not sure if we'll get to where the author claims, but the trend is there.
Maybe it's time to sell Microsoft stock?
Customer Rating:
Summary: The first six chapters are stellar
Comment: The Big Switch started out as one of the most interesting books I've read in a while. In part one Carr presents a terrific analogy between electricity and the Internet as general purpose technologies. Unfortunately part two is just as dull as part one is compelling. Part one succeeds in my view because it's an effective historical analogy rich in comparisons and historical insight. In part two Carr highlights the many of the issues raised by the development of Internet as a utility (i.e., loss of privacy). I think what's missing is the lack of solutions or unique insight. The first six chapters are stellar; I'd skim the rest.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Really two books in one
Comment: For those who know or care about the infrastructure undergirding our technology revolution, this is a must-read book. The thesis is simple: we're at a tipping point where "utility computing" will quickly replace in-house data centers. It sounds simple, but the implications are not. The first half of the book lays out and describes the revolution, sometimes in breathless terms. The second half is much darker, however, detailing projected consequences. The author points out that a number of popular websites these days have nearly zero staff--the content comes from users and the infrastructure is rented utility computing from the likes of Google and Amazon. This means that huge online businesses do not translate to employment. In the past, when industries, such as electrical utilities, have undergone major transformation, people lost jobs, but new jobs were available using different skills. The author has a gloomy outlook here: the lost jobs may not be replaced. I suspect the real outcome will be a bit better. People are inventive and new technologies (perhaps not electronic) will need people. Overall, a great book, but I do think the second half is rather darker than it needs to be.
Customer Rating:
Summary: future view is flawed
Comment: I found this book interesting when it covered the time period from 1870's to current day (2008). When the author began to discuss possible futures, I thought he was unrealistic and pessimistic. I do not think his forcasts are grounded in any sort of a good understanding of technology and are not to useful.
Overall this book is worth reading but the author should have stopped at the current time; his future views really distract from the quality of the book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting read if not a little pessimistic
Comment: As a computer software professional, I took extra interest in this book and did find it interesting and thought-provoking but not that realistic and a bit pessimistic about the future of the knowledge worker.
The first half of the book is a history lesson about electrification and the impact it had on societies and on individuals.
The basic thesis of the first half of the book is the creation of the electric grid accelerated the concentration of wealth in large businesses. With electric light and power, businesses could build bigger and more productive plants, boosting their output and gaining advantages of scale over smaller businesses. Further, as the big companies expanded, they hired huge numbers of both skilled and unskilled workers and paid them good wages.
Since start of the Industrial Revolution, mechanization had been steadily reducing the demand for talented craftsmen - their work had been taken over by machines that required little skill to operate - and electricity accelerated this trend.
Part Two is about what Carr calls the "World Wide Computer" - the Internet as we know it. The WWC will displace private systems as the preferred platform for computing and traditional IT departments will be significantly downsized Carr writes.
The arrival of a universal computing grid portended a different kind of economic realignment, the author writes. Rather than concentrating wealth in the hands of a small number of companies, it may be concentrate the wealth in the hands of a small number of individuals.
Carr sees the power moving from many companies now that provide software to few with Google obviously being the main player with their growing suite of applications including YouTube.
Some examples of companies with smaller IT departments are provided to show that as much manpower isn't required to run services that operate over the Internet.
I agree with a lot of the comments made in the reviews already posted re there isn't a clear parallel between cloud computing and the electricity grid but it made for interesting reading nonetheless.
If there is or isn't a parallel does not matter too much to me as I was interested in how the author saw computing and computing over the Internet would change businesses and individual computing going forward.
As far as some of Carr's predictions, software as a service and cloud computing are here now (on a small scale) and I don't hear of mass downsizing of IT departments. If anything, different skills will be required to connect the disparate systems and Services Oriented Architecture will play a role in this.
Overall, I found it to be an interesting read but I enjoy reading about history and especially about technology.
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