Over The Weekend

As I searched on Amazon for relevant books, I began searching things like “information society”, “Internet”, “social media”, and “technology transformation”.  Many of the interesting books were found from searching Internet.  I then narrowed my three book selections to Rethinking the Internet of Things by Francis daCosta, Black Code by Ronald J Deibert, and Leading Digital by George Westerman.  The first book, Rethinking the Internet of Things, is the shortest of the three at 192 pages.  The book is about how the connection Internet creates is becoming dangerous because we’re becoming dependent on it.  Not the connection of people, but information to people.  This book is also the most expensive of the three at $27 and also has the worst reviews at 3.5 stars.  After looking up the book on WorldCat, they list the subject of the book as System Design and Internet.  The book is also held at 214 different libraries. 

            The second book, Black Code, is the longest of the three books at 336 pages.  It is about the privacy and ‘dark side’ of the Internet.  Although it’s the longest, its only $12 on Amazon and has a 4 out of 5 star rating.  After researching the book on WorldCat, they list the subject for the book as Cyberspace and Computer Crimes.  This book is only held at 89 libraries, which is significantly less than the first book.

            The last book, Leading Digital, is right in the middle for length at 256 pages.  This book is about how technology has transformed the business world and how leaders must use this technology to be successful.  The reviews on Amazon have this book rated at 5 stars, but only four people have submitted reviews for the book.  The subject on WorldCat lists this book as Information Technology – Management and Organizational Change.  Only six libraries currently have this book, which is by far the least for all three books.  All three of these books may not have the same subject, but they all are similar to each other.

            Through Google Books, none of the books I’ve chosen had reviews with them.  The discussion of these books is silent, which will set myself up for a surprise of a book.  Switching to Library Thing, the last book Leading Digital didn’t even find anything once I searched the title.  Out of the two remaining books, neither of them had any reviews or conversation about the book.  Rethinking the Internet of Things was more popular on the website’s rating though.

            The book I’ve ultimately chosen is Black Code because it gives rare insight to the things happening behind our backs on the Internet.  Although neither Project Muse nor ProQuest had the book listed, the reviews I’ve gathered online had great things to say about the book.