Book Description

Dell is the most successful computer comapny in the world leading the way in growthand profitability. Founded in 1984 by Michael Dell, the company dominates the directselling of business and personal computers. Dell builds computers to order, at pricesretailers can rarely match. In Business the Dell Way, Rebecca Saunders examines thisremarkable success story and draws out the universal lesson any business can learn.Dell began with a brilliant business model - creating mass-customized computers andselling them direct to consumers. But this was not enough. The model has beensupported by management excellence, the relentless pursuit of improvement and aconstant flow of ideas and input from customers. In recent years Dell has maintained its market-leading position by positioning itself at the heart of the internet revolution.Business the Dell Way reveals how any manager, entrepreneur or investor can learnfrom the Dell story. It is at once an inspiring story of success and an invaluable sourceof lessons for the next generation of winners. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Insightful!
Chinese tech firm is an oxymoron, right? Not at all, according to this intriguing work by the late professor Qiwen Lu. This book, fascinating at times, offers an in-depth look at four successful Chinese tech enterprises. Taking each of the four as a case study, Lu thoroughly illustrates the challenges facing a bureaucracy attempting to break into a fast-changing industry. In spite of its good points, Lu's book isn't perfect. The text is laden with jargon, and at times it's difficult to understand exactly how these enterprises are organized. Still, there's plenty to like about this book. We at getAbstract recommend it to anyone interested in emerging economies, technology or international trade, or to anyone willing to have their expectations overturned.

brilliant but tragic
This book is the product of a remarkably well informed observer, packed full of insights that anyone interested in the Chinese economy and in high technology should know. Qiwen was a real insider in China, Harvard educated and with extraordinary connections in China. Unfortunately, Prof. Lu died just prior to its publication. I believe it was his first book. The loss is incalculable. ... Read more

Book Description

When the Pentagon releases the biggest computer contract in history for bids, it gets everyone in Washington's attention, from the myriad computer services companies to the President of the United States. The multi-billion dollar NMS (Navy Material System) could sway political fortunes, make or break careers, and will serve to energize the FBI in its quest to uncover industry corruption. The political maneuvering, business posturing and personal vendettas surrounding NMS create a complex mosaic of intrigue, boardroom struggles and political chicanery at the highest levels of government. Not to mention the sex, drugs and industriual espionage that are intertwined as the proposals move from initial submittal to BAFO (Best And Final Offer) to award and protest. ... Read more

Book Description

Plunkett’s InfoTech Industry Almanac presents a complete analysis of the technology business, including the convergence of hardware, software, entertainment and telecommunications.This market research tool includes our analysis of the 15 major trends affecting the industry, from the rebound of the global PC market, to Wi-Fi and WiMax, to open systems such as Linux, to web services and supercomputing. In addition, we provide 16 major statistical tables covering the industry, from computer sector revenues to broadband subscribers to semiconductor industry production. No other source provides this book’s easy-to-understand comparisons of growth, expenditures, technologies, imports/exports, corporations, research and other vital subjects. The corporate profile section provides in-depth, one-page profiles on each of the top 500 InfoTech companies. We have used our massive databases to provide you with unique, objective analysis of the largest and most exciting companies in: Computer Hardware, Computer Software, Internet Services, E-Commerce, Networking, Semiconductors, Memory, Storage, Information Management and Data Processing. We've been working harder than ever to gather data on all the latest trends in information technology. Our research effort includes an exhaustive study of new technologies and discussions with experts at dozens of innovative tech companies. Purchasers of the printed book or PDF version may receive a free CD-ROM database of the corporate profiles, enabling export of vital corporate data for mail merge and other uses. 663 pages. ... Read more

Book Description

This is the most comprehensive new media industry directory. Gardner’s Guide to Multimedia and Animation Studios profiles hundreds of computer graphics, animation, multimedia companies in the USA and Canada. A valuable directory for professionals and students seeking to enter the New Media job market. Researched categories includes: areas of specialization; number of employees; description of company achievements, mailing address, phone and fax numbers, and web address. Indexed by the following categories: geographic location of studio; number of employees; area of specialization; in addition to the generic index. This book is your direct link to hundreds of studios that employs over 100,000 practitioners within the USA and overseas. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

excellent book
Ok the book is now 'old' in that it was published in 1995, but you are not going to find anything better on the business of the 'information highway' (I know that term irritates people, but the point is that this book is about more than the just Internet, it is about the world the net is embedded within).

The book is about the business war over communication and transmission, that will effect everybody who uses the Internet or other 'new media', the massive mergers and collaborations which effect us all. It discusses High Definition TV, the video on demand problem, the fight over the phone business, stock market frenzy over 'information stock', the problems when so much money can be made by so few people, what happens to the 'middle class' etc. It is a call for us to think about the future based upon a fairly detailed consideration of what is happening now

some quotes:

"design and use of new technology necessarily entails contests over political power"

"companies.. are continuing to invest feverishly against the evidence of most market research and historical experience"

"one of the Digital Revolution's central laws is that the more uncertain one is about exactly how to profit from digital technology, the more lyrical one becomes in describing it"

"As the rate of new wealth creation fueled by digital technology rises, the number of people required to produce it is decreasing"

There are few books on the so called 'information revolution', which anyone interested in the subject will get something out of. This is a book for business, investors, academic analysts, politicians, and nearly everyone else.

It¿s almost magic, in the sense that it drags you...
Road Warriors: Dreams and Nightmares Along the Information Highway by Daniel Burstein and David Kline, Plume/Penguin Book, $13.95. 1996 ISBN 0-452-27105-3 by Marcus Goncalves - goncalves@process.com "Road Warriors: Dreams and Nightmares Along the Information Highway" by Daniel Burstein and David Kline is one of those books so embracing in its effort to describe a vivid, human-natured narrative of the road warrior personalities and strategies driving the digital technology revolution of our times that it almost challenges you to "pray" before you continue reading it. The book, has a bitter-sweet taste, funny but also sad, exciting but depressing, it gives us a leap of faith in the twenty-first century society but also portraits the leviathan of cultural clashes. It's almost magic, in the sense that it drags you onto an envision of the dominating forces shaping our future, the battle between net profit and net human identity, the gripping reality of where the information technology is taking us by condition... not opinion. Burstein and Kline's book elaborates on nothing new, but provides an entire new insight of facts, as the arguments presented are results of social-technocrats tragedies and casualties, elicited by incisive and informative headlines on Wired magazine, Hotwired and other Web-zines, not mentioning major news media. It debates on the "usability" of computer technology, which included video games and the human imagination as well as the PC versus the TV trend. It wonders over the dreams and nightmares of every road warrior, active or passive. It even discusses about Bill Gates and Microsoft's strategy, and the works of the government's proper role in light of the free market forces. Road Warriors is talking about a current reality, where most of the battles are still taking place, some not even started yet. The formed and severed alliances it describes are still in the process. The warriors of the information highway and the rest of us are optimistically heralding a new world order in the wake of the Information Age. For some, it may be another opportunity to grab the American dream, but it could also very well be a paradigm predicting a new, dangerous global conflict were disconcerting inefficient government policy, professional careers and family values will crash and burn, in Web time, through the effect of wires and chips. The rivalry of the Information Age warriors is replaced by the clash of civilizations. Just like Phoenix, the re-emerging information technologies on the Internet, the Web, Cybercash and I-phones, to name few, are reshaping new trends, new opportunities, new business, and consequently, a new cast of citizens, a new civilization: a Cyber one, that is. This does not mean that these events are always convincing. Here and there, as Burstein and Kline examine recent events, in light of the coming of the so called Digital Age, one suspects that they are interpreting the facts to suit the theory. Their book has plenty detailed examples of the advent of the Digital Age, including the social dimensions often excluded by technocrats. That's why so many love magazines like Wired, and so many hate it. For instance, will computers replace televisions in the living room, where the family will be gathered, as discussed in chapter eight, Smart TV, or a PC in Drag? The burgeoning increase of personal computers, usage of online networks and multimedia applications suggests that. Indeed Americans are spending more and more time in front of a computer. That much is true, but the theory has trouble with other features of the "infowar," like the deep transformation it will indicate in American social life, which realistically, as Burstein and Kline indicates, it will not happen in the foreseeable future. The idea hardly seems to matter to technocrats and road warriors, whatever their own faults (is it technology's fault?), which really were victims "of profound changes in the structure and internal life of Americans," as brilliantly discussed on the book, not merely a great ideal of Yankee ingenuity, entrepreneurial capitalism, and economic progress, as described by Burstein and Kline. For instance, the Silicon Graphics' former chairman, Jim Clark, statement that "computers and consumer electronics are going to be shared technologies," would have been very different if he had not found a new "Zion for his mass-market dream: the Internet." What exactly Jim Clark might have done differently so he wouldn't be so wrong on his assessment? Thus the Internet may be housing some 30 million users, the cable TV viewers amount to about 150 million in 63 million homes. Still, Burstein and Kline's grand concept of a PC in drag versus smart TV explains a good deal about the battle of giants like Tele-Communications, Inc., Microsoft, NTT (the giant Japanese telecommunication company) and their impact in the world these days, which would be difficult to explain without it. Stripped to its essence, paraphrasing Professor Donna L. Hoffman's words, of Vanderbilt University, the book's argument is this: The Information Age will tremendously affect society, in particular the American society. The book is dazzling in its scope of placing this global revolution in the historic context and grasp of the intricacies of contemporary global politics and consequent transformations following the Industrial Revolution. Readers not already familiar with issues driving the unprecedented promises of the Information Age might feel a bit overwhelmed with the conclusions the authors come to: America's society is growing more and more dysfunctional, in a process that is alienating families and individuals by canning the American people dreams onto digital fetishes serving the interests of few. As the authors write on Chapter 11, The Global Challenge, "the prosaic reality is that policy makers in every country, including United States, are continuing to make national decisions about the flow of global information based on their own interests." Past the after shock of a crude reality taking place at the myriad of the present Information Age, riding on the so called Information Super Highway, Road Warriors is a "must read" for everyone involved in this process, business and academic communities alike. It is also a call for society's conscience and active participation on this digital revolution. It is an alert of the danger and somewhat unavoidable fragmentation and decentralization of society in face of the clashes resulted of the "future shock" so well diagnosed by Alvin and Heidi Toffler back in the 70's. If we don't take Bustein & Kline very seriously, the clash of our civilization may start at our home. ... Read more

Book Description

"No company doing business in the 21st century can escape the digital storm. You can be ill-prepared or well-prepared. I'd rather you be well-prepared. Absorbing the lessons of the current book will be a regarding investment of your time." Hasso Plattner, CEO and Co-Founder, SAP

"As the dust settles on the Internet boom, we can all benefit by taking a close look at what we learned. Companies like Enron were able to revolutionize their businesses and are even more excited about the future. Whether you're building on your own success, preparing to get back in the game or just starting out, Philipp Gerbert and his colleagues have put a great collection of research and insights at your fingertips." Jeff Skilling, CEO, Enron Corporation

"While Internet valuations have faded, the importance of managing an e-business is actually increasing rapidly. Digital Storm provides unique insights into what has been learned in the electronic marketplace and how to address future challenges. The book also emphasizes the critical importance of the management software layer of e-business for the realization of successful innovative concepts." Sanjay Kumar, CEO, Computer Associates

"E-business is turning from hype to reality. Networking the chain has become a high priority in order to gain speed and efficiencies. DaimlerChrysler has addressed this challenge with the group wide DCXNET initiative. Digital Storm follows the same philosophy and provides unique insights into what has been learned and how to address these future challenges." Juergen Schrempp, CEO

"Digital Storm is not about the Internet, it is about doing business in the 21st century. Having myself steered a pioneer through the early turbulences in the electronic marketplace I congratulate the authors on their well-written, comprehensive summary of the lessons learned and the critical issues for future value creation." Mark Walsh, Chairman and Co-Founder, VerticalNet

"Based on our extensive experience in B2B E-Commerce we welcome Digital Storm as an insightful discussion of the subject after the hype. The book gives a well-written and comprehensive analysis of the lessons learned, and it provides an indispensable guide for companies seeking to seize strategic opportunities as the e marketplace continues to evolve." Douglas M. McCraken, CEO, Deloitte Consulting.

"This book meets a profound need in today's business environment: how to take strategic advantage of the fundamental power of the Internet. Mercifully the authors know their stuff and offer solid evidence regarding what will be profitable deployment of technology. Every leader should digest their well crafted recommendations." John O'Neil, CEO, Center of Leadership renewal

"Digital Storm is a refreshing analysis of the new realities in B2B E-Commerce. Business leaders will find realistic, practical advice on how to leverage the Internet in the current environment to build sustaining customer relationships." Regis McKenna.

... Read more

Reviews (5)

Excellent
In a time where many of the rules of business are changing as fast as we can identify them, it's nice to find a book that identifies not only successes and failures, but also what's behind them. The authors use strong examples in explaining why online e-marketplaces have evolved the way they have, and they do a great job of laying the groundwork to help leaders navigate through the future innovations we're likely to see. There are a lot of B-to-B books out there, I'm recommending this book to my friends above many others I've read.

E-business lessons I have learnt - the hard way!
Having co-founded a fledgling broadband E-business in 1996, you could say I've been at the bleeding edge of E-business for an eternity. Needless to say its been like a roller coaster ride - largely fun - but so scary at times... If "experience" is what you get when you can't get what you want - I've got experience!

The fascinating thing about "Digital Storm" - is how much understanding and insight the authors provide, about planning and setting up and running an e-business - I wish I'd read it earlier.

For those thinking about committing real money to an e-business venture - or just wanting to understand how e-business works - Digital Storm is the best strategic guide - you will get for the money.

The Digital Storm
In the late 1990s, it was widely expected that the B2B space would explode, far exceeding the B2C marketplaces. It didn't happen. A great number of e-marketplaces imploded instead, unable to attract the necessary business volume. Likewise, many specialized infrastructure players are in deep trouble and will likely have to cede their dominance to the incumbent enterprise software vendors such as SAP or Oracle. Philipp Gerbert gives an excellent account of the rise of the e-marketplaces and the digital storm they encountered by their pioneering acts. Gerbert does not just show what went wrong; he also shows that the potential of the e-market places will continue to be in a networked environment, albeit a different one. This is a definite must-read for every business executive who needs to understand the pitfalls in building e-marketplaces and how to exploit their potential.

A book for turbulent times
A well written and thoughtful book which provides interesting insights. In these turbulent times, the title and materials are ese\pcecially appropriate. A must read for buisness executives in the business to busienss space.

Comprehensive look at "ebusiness"
This book does a good job at providing a detailed look at the current (and future) state of e-business(B2B) landscape. It not only covers the different business models, but also the underlying technologies which make this ebusiness platforms possible.

The book is well-structured and makes it relatively easy to read. It does take a lot of effort to present complex concepts in simple manner and its evident from reading the book that the authors have really put in effort to structure the book to make it simple and engaging.

I would definately recommend this book to anybody interested in understanding the entire B2B marketplace from business and technology perspective. ... Read more

Book Description

One of the most important forces driving economic performance in the United States and other countries during the 1990s was the rise of information technology. The new technology has had such a significant impact on the economy that "the new economy" emerged as a popular term in both the media and academia.

This book, written in an accessible style, examines basic questions about the effects of information technology on various aspects of the economy. The topics include the relationship between innovation and the stock market value of the innovating firm; competition policy; demand factors as determinants of growth; institutional aspects of the innovation process; and the effectiveness of monetary policy in stabilizing the economy. ... Read more

Book Description

This is the first book to provide comparative research data on the software industry in three major parts of the world: the U.S., Japan, Western Europe, and the Russian Federation. It explores the reasons that some countries have had more success in software development than others. The research was conducted by a group of international experts in the software industry. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

CutAndPaste.com
The editor (or, more accurately, compiler) of this volume is honest about how he put it together: He clipped interesting stories about unsuccessful dot.com companies and slipped them into a file. When the file was thick enough, he arranged the stories more or less topically, padded them with his file of recent non-dot.com "computer failure" articles, obtained reprint permissions and, voila!, produced a book (or, more accurately, a "book").

The stories are grouped into chapters, and between the chapters comes the editor's intellectual contribution, consisting mostly of jejune observations that we have all seen or thought before.

If you read The Wall Street Journal and The Industry Standard, you have already read most of this book, and the parts that you haven't read are of marginal interest. On the positive side, the articles are interesting, even though their moral is generally one that was old when Charles Dow was knee-high to a debenture: Don't throw money into an enterprise that you don't understand.

And the moral of this review is: Throw money at this book if you want a permanent anthology of schadenfreude. Otherwise, you got some bucks to invest? Right here I have the Next Great Thing. . . .

3,5 stars for a very good... compilation!
I have to admit I was drawn by the book's very provocative title, so I decided to browse through it today, to find that it is a very nice compilation of stories printed with permission, taken from publications such as the Wall Street Journal, The Industry Standard, Barron's and Time Digital.

This is not to say that the content of the stories was bad at all. On the contrary, all of these publications are highly respectable, but if you have been a close follower of the whole dot.com shakedown process over the course of the past year and a half, and expect to find insights that will allow you to better understand the underlying reasons for it, you might be dissapointed not to find any "new" ones in this book.

In short, in my opinion, the book does not add significantly to the whole discussion about the topic. ... Read more

Book Description

There is a huge potential for IT to transform businesses through creating opportunities to do new things, to improve existing ways of working and to reduce costs. However, there is a huge gap to cross between the opportunity to deliver business value from IT and the reality of the benefits actually achieved. Most IT projects fail to deliver the benefits expected of them and in 60-80% of cases the project delivers no benefit at all. For senior business and IT managers responsible for the delivery of IT-based projects, this briefing provides the concepts, insights and practical guidance you need to ensure they deliver business value. ... Read more

Book Description

A very net, very clear and very persuasive explanation of why Hawaii should pursue a strategy of becoming a center of technology-based business and what that strategy should be. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Blue Wave Millennium: NOT A Future for Hawaii
This book affirms that Hawaii's economy is in trouble and that changes are required. The author proposes that high-tech is the best, if not only, means to develop a sustainable economy in Hawaii.

The need identified is a fundamental truth to be embraced: Hawaii must be able to function in the New Economy.

A central premise of the book is sound: that, in the new millennium, knowledge and communications are the primary engines of growth.

The author's Blue Wave Millennium strategy (BWM)is that Hawaii be "a center for specific types of R&D and technology related business." While this concept has appeal and prospect, the book does not credibly present BWM as a plan for sustainable economic development.

The "traditional vision" is defined as reliant on a tourism industry that has stalled and is self-limiting. The author provides a clear synopsis of Hawaii's excessive reliance on a non-sustainable visitor industry and asserts, "Tourism won't be, can't be, and shouldn't be the main source of our economy's growth."

It is stated that agriculture "will never again have the strength that sugar once had" - mistakenly equating the fate of Hawaii agriculture with the fate of sugar. Sugar has lost, forever, its position as king of the island economy, but Hawaii agriculture is in resurgence. In 1980's and 1990's, the sugar industry declined due to reasons the author articulates well. During this same period the value of diversified agriculture increased by 200%.

The author faintly acknowledges the merit of agriculture contributing to Hawaii's economy via import substitution. The actuality of this taking place and the potential of a larger contribution is disregarded. Such disregard is unfortunate in the context of a discussion of high-tech, since agriculture in the new millennium is utilizing high-tech and will continue to do so at an increasing rate.

As the author points out, coffee, macadamia nuts, and exotic tropical fruits are all grown elsewhere, so that Hawaii is one of many competitors. This is also true for computer technology - it is produced elsewhere and any new entrants into this market will be one of many competitors.

In critiquing components of the Hawaii economy, the military sector is not mentioned. An informed analysis of Hawaii's economy, as it exists today and in the near- to mid-future, requires including the impact of the military.

The high-tech successes of Ireland and Bangalore, India in the 1990's are given as examples for Hawaii to follow.

Contrary to what is implied, Ireland being an island does not make it analogous to Hawaii. That Ireland is further from the US than Hawaii fails to prove that Hawaii's remote location is not an impediment to establishment of a high-tech economy in the islands. Ireland is close to, part of, and has special market access to, the European Union, a large market.

Bangalore does not, as the author claims, prove "that the Blue Wave Millennium is achievable." The author praises policies that made Bangalore a high-tech economic success, particularly the Indian government's approach to getting high-tech parks built. Would industry development policy from Bangalore be suitable in Hawaii? A notorious case of industry development in India was the location of the worst chemical disaster in history: the 1984 gas leak at a chemical plant in Bhopal, India. Does Hawaii want to use as a role model, industry development policies that resulted in such a catastrophe?

There is a fundamental economic reason that emulating Ireland's and Bangalore's leadership in the high-tech boom of the 1990's is unlikely to replicate their successes in Hawaii. An entrepreneur, company, or community contemplating investment must recognize that early innovators capture high returns and followers compete to sustain lower returns. Being a follower will not result in Hawaii having sustainable prosperity in the twenty-first century.

BWM would have Hawaii become "a place where high-tech gets done." Perhaps, instead, Hawaii should be a place where high-tech gets used. High-tech (computer technology), properly utilized, reduces the cost of activities. This cost reduction comes from two sources: gains in efficiency realized by those who use high-tech, and, in the year 2002 and beyond, a declining price for computer technology. It is preferable to pay a low price for and then use cost-saving technology, instead of investing in an industry that produces low priced technology.

The steps to BWM include improved quality of education; private sector alliances; partnership between government, industry and academia; competitive government; financial incentives; tax reform; support from large corporations, entrepreneurs, and the public; and venture capital. All of these steps represent good ideas. None are new ideas and none are unique to high-tech.

The BWM selling point is that "Hawaii has unique advantages in lifestyle, telecommunications facilities, existing expertise, and time zone." These advantages, properly exploited, can make Hawaii more attractive for business investment. However, they are not so unique as the author implies.

The author alludes to biotech, but emphasizes computer technology. More elaboration on what biotech has to offer Hawaii would have been good.

It is imperative that knowledge become the engine for Hawaii's economy. The challenge for Hawaii is not to duplicate a model that has been successful for another place, at another time, with another set of circumstances. The challenge for Hawaii is to create and use knowledge, including high-tech and biotech, as an economic engine to do what no one else has done. This would be the way for Hawaii to create a sustainable social and economic future in which the health of the natural environment is constantly improved.

Technology in the Tropics
Hawaii ought to be as vital a center of high technology (albeit smaller in scale) as Silicon Valley or the Miracle Mile in Boston, or Fairfax, VIrginia or even Bangalore India. Hawaii has a climate that is wonderful, natural beauty all around, a time zone break that lets you talk in real time to New York and Tokyo in the same business day and (big secret here) is one of the most wired states in the country. You can surf in the morning, be at your computer by 10 a.m., work, catch an afternoon of golf or sunset tennis, work some more. On the Big Island of Hawaii you can do all that and add skiing. Lifestyle is perfect, housing prices are lower that Silicon Valley and forget the smog and traffic congestion. It has not happened (with a few exceptoins, like the astronomy center atop Mauna Kea or the Super Computer on Maui, etc.) but why? Tony Clapes explains why -- in a word, most people still stuck in the Old Economy of tourism and even plantation agriculture. And he tells us what needs to be done about it. Nothing short or a grass roots crusade, he says. There is lots to argue about here and Blue Wave Millennium is a great way to get the discussion started. ... Read more

Book Description

Before the Computer fully explores the data processing industry in the United States from its nineteenth-century inception down to the period when the computer became its primary tool. As James Cortada describes what was once called the "office appliance industry," he challenges our view of the digital computer as a revolutionary technology. Cortada interprets reliance on computers as a development within an important segment of the American economy that was earlier represented largely by such instruments as typewriters, tabulating machines, adding machines, and calculators. He also describes how many of the practices of the office appliance industry evolved into those of the computer world. Drawing on previously unavailable industry archives, the author adds to our understanding of IBM's early history and offers short corporate histories of firms that include NCR, Burroughs, and Remington Rand. Focusing on the United States but also including comparative material on Europe and Asia, Before the Computer will be a unique source of knowledge about the companies that built office equipment and their enormous impact on economic life.

Reviews (1)

Before the Computer
As a graduate instructor for technology courseware I was please to find such a good resource for the history of the computer industry.This is a great resource for those in the industry who wish to learn more about the early evolution of computers.It also captures the length that our society has used computers and puts a framework around what people "think" is a 10 - 20 year old industry.It definately should be a part of anyone's library who has a role in the computer industry and wishes to understand the past and how it relates to the future. ... Read more

Book Description

Do the antitrust laws have a place in the digital economy or are they obsolete? That is the question raised by the government's legal action against Microsoft, and it is the question this volume is designed to answer.America's antitrust laws were born out of the Industrial Revolution. Opponents of the antitrust laws argue that whatever merit the antitrust laws may have had in the past they have no place in a digital economy. Rapid innovation makes the accumulation of market power practically impossible. Markets change too quickly for antitrust actions to keep up. And antitrust remedies are inevitably regulatory and hence threaten to `regulate business'.A different view -- and, generally, the view presented in this volume -- is that antitrust law can and does have an important and constructive role to play in the digital economy. The software business is new, it is complex, and it is rapidly moving. Analysis of market definition, contestibility and potential competition, the role of innovation, network externalities, cost structures and marketing channels present challenges for academics, policymakers and judges alike. Evaluating consumer harm is problematic. Distinguishing between illegal conduct and brutal -- but legitimate -- competition is often difficult.Is antitrust analysis up to the challenge? This volume suggests that antitrust analysis `still works'. In stark contrast to the political rhetoric that has surrounded much of the debate over the Microsoft case, the articles presented here suggest neither that Microsoft is inherently bad, nor that it deserves a de facto exemption from the antitrust laws. Instead, they offer insights -- for policymakers, courts, practitioners, professors and students of antitrust policy everywhere -- on how antitrust analysis can be applied to the business of making and marketing computer software. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

An easy read in understanding the Microsoft Antitrust Case
With all the various information available concerning the Microsoft monopoly, it was wonderful to find an objective source that followed the events before and during the Microsoft case, analyzed the monopolistic tendencies of the software market in general, and compared this information with previous monopolies. The best characteristic of this book is that it explains the events and legalities of the case in such a way that it is not at all difficult to understand.

State of the art.
The contributions to this work are all excellent, well written articles by the most respected experts on the leading edge of antitrust analysis. ... Read more

Book Description

In Making Microchips, Jan Mazurek examines the environmental and economic implications of the computer microchip industry's exodus from California's Silicon Valley to New Mexico, Virginia, Ireland, and Taiwan. Globalization, economic restructuring, and changing manufacturing processes in this rapidly growing industry present difficult new questions for environmental policy. Mazurek challenges the assumptions of U.S. policies designed to promote the competitiveness of domestic microchip makers. She argues that, although these initiatives focus on the economic effects of environmental regulation, they fail to acknowledge how economic and organizational changes within the industry collide with and often confound efforts to monitor and manage pollution from chemicals used in microchip manufacturing.

Despite its reputation as a clean industry, microchip manufacturing is fraught with hazards. More than sixty dangerous acids, solvents, caustics, and gases are used to make microchips, and some of them are suspected to be carcinogens and/or reproductive toxins. Mazurek describes the environmental by-products of chipmaking, including soil contamination, air and water pollution, and damage to human health. Applying insights from economic geography to questions of how and where companies organize production, she shows how Silicon Valley played a pivotal role in the development of the microchip. Pairing federal environmental data with structural and geographic information on the six firms that continue to build wafer fabrication plants in the United States, she demonstrates how reorganization and relocation of manufacturing facilities divert attention from trends in toxic emissions and how they complicate public and private efforts to improve the industry's environmental performance. In the concluding chapter, Mazurek marshals her findings in a broader analysis of the expansion of global manufacturing and the resultant environmental problems. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Environmental Issues More Than Anthing Else
The first quarter of the book was extremely interesting and informative. She gave a basic overview of the semiconductor industry, and included reasonable comparisons and predictions. She included an abundance of information and research on possible environmental issues that could arise from semiconductor manufacturing. As I began reading, I prepared myself for a slamming of the industries' "clean manufacturing" procedures. However, I was pleased to discover that her analysis was well thought out, and presented in an unbiased fashion. I would have liked to see more analysis in terms of the economic implications/costs, either micro or macro, associated with restructuring the industry into a "cleaner state." In review, this book was informative, and helpful in presenting underlying environmental issues associated with the semiconductor industry.

Clean manufacturing, or not?
I didn't want to like this book. The cover copy led me to expect a one-sided attack on the semiconductor industry's claims of clean manufacturing. Instead, I found a clear discussion of the difficult balance between the public interest and the needs of a constantly evolving industry. Semiconductor manufacturers regularly change manufacturing processes, shift production between countries, and even (through foundries) transfer production to entirely different companies. All of these characteristics complicate traditional environmental regulation based on clearly defined lists of pollutants from clearly defined sources. Meanwhile, the industry's sometimes obsessive secrecy, though justified by competitive pressures, complicates community relations and can hamper more flexible regulatory approaches.

In some cases, Mazurek's lack of semiconductor manufacturing expertise shows. For example, she repeats without comment the contention of environmental groups that water too dirty for wafer manufacturing is, of necessity, unfit for human consumption. In other instances, the existing regulatory structure itself leads to potentially misleading analysis. For example, Department of Commerce statistics on semiconductor shipments do not clearly distinguish between US-manufactured chips and US-designed chips manufactured outside the US, making it difficult to tell whether declines in toxic releases are due to cleaner manufacturing or simply to production transfers.

These complaints are merely quibbles, though. Taken as a whole, Mazurek has composed an impressive and thought-provoking analysis. Environmental policy makers, manufacturing executives, and the citizens affected by their decisions could all learn something from this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Life in a big organization - growing, enjoying, fighting and dying.An employee fighting for his company while cutting the branch he sits on.Sprinkled with jokes, a quiz, sharp organizational caricatures.The road from heaven to hell couldn't be any clearer. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent !
I'm sure that the real-life story told in this book, or "memography", as the author calls it, is not a stand alone case but I doubt that many people would be able to describe the series of events in such an intriguing and original way as Mr. Faybish does. This book has it all : pashion, humour, drama, cartoons and ...mathematics ! Just buy it. ... Read more