Distributed Programming with Ruby Review

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(More customer reviews)This book provides an excellent survey of distributed programming techniques using the Ruby platform. As a software engineer who is largely unfamiliar with Ruby, but very familiar with distributed programming, I was able to leverage the book both to understand "how you do things" in Ruby, as well as to introduce myself to the (libraries, framework tools, etc.) which make distributed programming a reality. My experience in reading this book was that it had a great flow, and a very clean presentation on the subject matter. I walked away with a deeper understanding of the Ruby language itself, as well as a mapping from "strategy/design concept" to "implementation toolkit" should I have a need to write a distributed service in Ruby. In summary, the book provides an excellent survey of both distributed concepts, as well as several options available on the Ruby platform for each, covering: DRb, Rinda, RingyDingy, Starfish, Distribunaut, Politics, Starling, working with Rabbit MQ, BackgrounDRb, and Delayed Job.
Much like the Ruby language itself, the text is very concise in explaining even fairly complicated concepts. It achieves this focus of delivery by building on fundamental concepts, providing a very simple starting point, and layering on additional "would like to" one at a time, without confusing the underlying intention. This pattern is present both at the micro level, as each chapter introduces a new distributed challenge and leaves you with a working knowledge of what the Ruby space has to offer for solutions implementations; as well as at the macro level, as the topics of each chapter progress from very simple things like remote procedure calls and data marshalling, to advanced topics such as an remote work processor, distributed work queue based on a map-reduce framework or a message queue service. While the phrase "map-reduce" is mentioned in several topic headings, there is no actual example of a problem solved with a map and reduce against a distributed dataset. The final topic, although not directly a distributed programming concept, is useful information for any production system that does any work of interest: a work scheduler using BackgrounDRb.
In a similar way, each chapter presents a very tiny example app, with complete code, and a walk through, distinguishing between the concept at hand, and the library specific implementation semantics. Also, similar examples are used where appropriate, making it easier to understand the specific nuances of a particular library. Mirroring the measured build up of the text, the code samples evolve in a simple and natural way over the course of a given topic. Although one might complain that there is little imagination in the examples, this focus ensures that the reader walks away with a clear understanding of the "Hello World" level implementation - details are left up to further research.
My only complaint in terms of coverage is that the book is overly "Ruby-only" focused. As an engineer working in a largely heterogeneous environment, I would be interested in a comparison of the internal "Ruby" only packages (e.g. DRb or Rinda) vs. tools that are a bit more cross platform: e.g. in this case, a comparison against a more generalized, stack agnostic marshalling framework (e.g. Google's Protocol Buffers, Facebook's Thrift, Cisco's Etch, or Microsoft's M). In particular, this would signify where the Ruby platform offers a particular advantage for a particular kind of distributed problem. However, as the title goes, this text is focused on the Ruby specific implementations of various technologies, instead of how Ruby as a language plays (with others) in these various areas.
Overall, I would say this is an excellent resource to use as a pointer for further research. If you are developing distributed systems using Ruby, then you are likely already aware of a certain number of these libraries; the survey of alternative options might be informative. For someone like myself who is familiar with distributed systems development but relatively ignorant of Ruby, it proved to be an excellent introduction both to the language, as well as to the Ruby specific semantics for implementing a basic distributed design (e.g. marshalling, task / job execution, etc.)
(Reposted from Bay APLN [...])

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"A must have title for the well-rounded Ruby programmer building advanced Rails applications and large systems!" OBIE FERNANDEZ, Series EditorComplete, Hands-On Guide to Building Advanced Distributed Applications with RubyDistributed programming techniques make applications easier to scale, develop, and deploy—especially in emerging cloud computing environments. Now, one of the Ruby community's leading experts has written the first definitive guide to distributed programming with Ruby. Mark Bates begins with a simple distributed application, and then walks through an increasingly complex series of examples, demonstrating solutions to the most common distributed programming problems.Bates presents the industry's most useful coverage of Ruby's standard distributed programming libraries, DRb and Rinda. Next, he introduces powerful third-party tools, frameworks, and libraries designed to simplify Ruby distributed programming, including his own Distribunaut. If you're an experienced Ruby programmer or architect, this hands-on tutorial and practical reference will help you meet any distributed programming challenge, no matter how complex.Coverage includes• Writing robust, secure, and interactive applications using DRb—and managing its drawbacks• Using Rinda to build applications with improved flexibility, fault tolerance, and service discovery• Simplifying DRb service management with RingyDingy• Utilizing Starfish to facilitate communication between distributed programs and to write MapReduce functions for processing large data sets• Using Politics to customize the processes running on individual server instances in a cloud computing environment • Providing reliable distributed queuing with the low-overhead Starling messaging server • Implementing comprehensive enterprise messaging with RabbitMQ and Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP)• Offloading heavyweight tasks with BackgrounDRb and DelayedJob

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The Myth of Digital Democracy Review

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(More customer reviews)I read in threes and fours, this book is part of the set that includes SMS Uprising: Mobile Activism in Africa and Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful.
This book educated me. It challenged and soundly negated some of my assumptions, but it also reinforced my view that the Internet at this time is a communications network, not a knowledge network or an action network.
Here is the last paragraph:
"Yet where the Internet has failed to live up to its billing has to do with the most direct kind of political voice. If we consider the ability of ordinary citizens to write things that other people will see, the Internet has fallen far short of the claims that continue to be made about it. It may be easy to speak in cyberspace, but it remains difficult to be heard."
Totally awesome. This is an impressive piece of work. At Phi Beta Iota I am posting four web diagrams showing top news and political sites and a couple of other things (I no longer post images to Amazon after they removed 354 images as a lazy way of censoring twelve copies of Obama-Bush sharing the same face--I no longer trust Amazon with my work, hence Phi Beta Iota--and a lesson about Internet abuse).
Behind this elegant book is a great deal of hard work with lots of math, lots of elbow grease, and lots of time spent making sense of massive amounts of data. I am totally impressed.
High points for me, having earlier raved about Joe Trippi's The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything as well as Cass Sunstein's Republic.com:
01) Digital divide is not the only divide--Internet is a winner take all environment
02) Liberals predominate online
03) Googlearchy has replaced meritocracy...top ten sites rule, everyone else go fish
04) Pornography and webmail are the two big dogs on the Internet, followed by search engines and a very small news set. In comparison to webmail, news is less than 20%, and in comparison to news, politics is perhaps 1% at best (of news--a tiny tiny fraction of it all).
05) The author does not really get into the deep web, the reality that there are over 75 search engines and Goolge is losing marketshare, or the fact that China and India and Brazil are creeping up and will one day soon hit a vertical rise in their web presence, especially now that kanji and other webname character sets are accepted.
06) The heart of the book, but not the bulk of the book, is about the "missing middle" and the very real fact that ordinary citizens are neither seen nor heard within the Internet overall and within the political chambers of the Internet particularly.
My review does not do this book justice. It is profoundly deeper than my summary above.
The book does reinforce my view that we must get all research and all budgets online, and that we must create the World Brain Institute and the Global Game, mandate true cost information online, and start using citizen buying power to move capitalism in a more moral sustainable useful direction (see my review just posted of Come Home America: The Rise and Fall (and Redeeming Promise) of Our Country and my many other reviews of books on capitalism, one more of which I will mention here, The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism.
Four more links within my Amazon "allowance":
Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder
Reflections on Evolutionary Activism: Essays, poems and prayers from an emerging field of sacred social change
Don't Bother Me Mom--I'm Learning!
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace


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Harmony Diplomacy: Golden Rule For Global Governance Review

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(More customer reviews)
REVIEW BY MORGAN STEACY, ASEAN STUDIES DEPARTMENT, YORK UNIVERSITY
Freedom, Democracy and Harmony Diplomacy: A Review by Morgan Steacy, York University, Toronto, East Asian Studies.
Have you ever heard someone say, "Can't we all just get along?", and thought that it sounded reasonable? This is exactly what I believe happened to Dr. Francis Fung, Director General of the World Harmony Organisation. Dr. Fung has written an article entitled, Freedom Democracy and Harmony Diplomacy that essentially asks this very question. The difference here is that he answers with a resounding, yes.
Up until now no one has ventured to explore the reasons that people have so often asked this question, but have never actually dealt with why the answer that should be YES seems determined to remain NO. So, how does this article evade the puerile nature of the question that it deals with?
Dr. Fung has chosen the USA, as the major world power, to be the primary focus of his urgings. He links historical downfalls of people quite succinctly with the current situation of the world. He describes a world that is so overcome with the notion of "spreading freedom" that there is never a moment to stop and think about the hypocrisy of deciding to "bring freedom" to another nation.
He describes this as "freedom diplomacy", a process which is detrimental to societies because of the fact that they are not determining their own freedom, making it inherently flawed. He further points out that while terrorists have acted in order to destroy our freedom, their success in actually doing so has been ineffective. He claims that it is our reaction to terrorism that has actually limited our freedom. He is not claiming that countries should eliminate counter-terror measures. The point he is making is that we are dealing with the symptoms of a problem rather than the problem itself.
Some believe that the answer to the problem lies in the style of governance that persists in regions where terrorists are able to survive. The answer, to these people, is simple. Spread democracy. If democracy's impact has been felt to the extent that it has in so many other parts of the world, then surely there is no reason for it to fail elsewhere. The truth, unfortunately, lies far from this simplistic view. It is impossible to deny that democracy has been a boon to many societies, and has even been the backbone of success in the modern world, but there are differences in the way that each nation practices democracy. The flexibility that democracy allows within a defined structure is one thing that makes democracy such an amazing concept. Unfortunately, it is often the case that narrow-mindedness and a lack of true cultural understanding inhibit the propagation of actual democracy, and it is only imperialism that perseveres.
Finally, Dr. Fung, having illuminated many of the problematic approaches currently being undertaken, leads the reader to the solution. Harmony is an approach that supports rather than censures, it is tolerant rather than judgemental and it is inclusive instead of being exclusive. Harmony is meant to encompass the fundamental principles that one ought to adhere to in all facets of life. Decision-making processes would be geared towards harmony, rather than personal gain, from an individual level all the way to a global plain.
Dr. Fung has taken a concept that is so seemingly simplistic and breathed a palpable life into it in this essay. The statement that he is making is direly needed and I hope that he continues to make statements like these so that people will start to realise that the solutions that are currently failing to solve the contentious issues of global peace will continue to fail until we realise that it is our very goal that is misguided. We need to establish global harmony before thinking about global peace. Harmony does not imply agreement, only tolerance. It is possible to bring harmony about quickly through education and compliance. Once the people of the world commit to harmony as a means to solve problems, the problems of the world will finally become manageable, and maybe then we will all "just get along".
Francis C. W. Fung's most recent essay, "Harmony Essential for Human Rights" has struck a cord that I believe to be invaluable at this stage of human existence. His focus here is clear from the title but his approach to the topic is unique and insightful. With contributions to this topic as common as they are, it is difficult to find an article that sheds new light on the subject, but this is just what Fung has done.
Human rights are considered by most to be equal and inalienable for all people regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or nationality. Fung has posited that, while this is an ideal goal to strive for, it is necessary to understand that each individual nation has limitations that create obstacles in the path of human rights development. He further notes that it is possible that behaviour that could be perceived as a human rights violation in one place may well be a legitimate course of action in another. China's one baby policy exemplifies his point perfectly because of the fact that this is a case where the seeming infringement of one's human rights is, in fact, a boon to the greater good.
Creating the elaborate web of infrastructure necessary to operate a fully functional society bereft of so-called human rights violations requires discernment of the needs of that particular society along with a stable economy. Given the fact that China's population crisis has created a situation wherein many are unable to provide the necessities of life for children due to a lack of facilities and resources, it seems unconscionable that the North American media should pass judgement so readily without sufficient knowledge or personal contact with the situation. The idea that a blanket of human rights, conceived by the Western world, is able to cover any situation is egocentric and more importantly inaccurate.
Having identified the problem as being an inability to understand the varied needs and values of nations as they relate to the implementation of human rights, Fung goes on to suggest that it is the imminent Harmony Renaissance that could reveal the solutions. Harmony requires that people allow for the differences between cultures without passing judgement. It requires that people take the time to ask questions and make decisions after they have heard the answers.
The concept of ritual is instrumental to Confucianism and may lend itself well to this discussion. The tenet holds that in carrying out ritual properly one becomes a human being. The performance of ritual requires genuine interaction with another individual or individuals. If we were to think of every moment as being ritualised, we would be forced to connect to the other that we intend to judge rather than simply imposing our own standards upon the other on whom those standards have no bearing.
Excusing nations for all violations of human rights is certainly not what is being called for. Nor is Fung necessarily claiming that each nation should independently determine the degree to which human rights can be provided. Rather the importance of what Fung is claiming lies in the acknowledgement and acceptance of difference. The manner in which a country behaves is determined by its history, its geography, its current socio-economic make-up and intangible cultural traits. Without a profound understanding of all factors involved it is impossible to understand decisions made. It is with this outlook that modern leaders and citizens must enter the global-political realm and replace careless judgements with calculated decisions based in the growing tide of harmony.
Morgan Steacy, York University, Department of East Asian Studies.

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The Rule of the Golden Mean is a Western doctrine for balanced living and proper handling of human contradictions. A comparable System of Belief in the East is the Way of the Golden Mean. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the philosophy of the Golden Mean is not against progress. It is the highest value of progress through dialogue and consultation. Its true essence is to prevent ideological extremism from taking hold. It is definitely opposed to the current religious confrontational strife. That is why it is the value of Golden Mean. This broad East and West concept of balance, when earnestly applied globally, can be the solution for resolving extreme disparity between rich and poor, minimizing religious confrontations and restoring ecological balance for sustainable development. In the current desire for good global governance we must also begin with Harmony Diplomacy. Harmony Diplomacy, as defined here, can be the Golden Rule of Global Governance. Harmony Diplomacy can be conceived as the common value of the most fluid-like, dynamic balance; encompassing tolerance, mutual respect, acceptance, equity and humility to achieve world harmony. Truth in world affairs, unlike mathematics, often is the Golden Mean between two opposite sides. When one powerful nation forcing its belief on other weak nations as the only absolute truth, it ignores the reality of diversity and defies reason. This is well documented by Al Gore in his most recent book, The Assault on Reason. The above theory, advancing human common aspirations in today s conflicted world, has been resonating worldwide. The author in resonance with world harmony has also published widely articles advocating Harmony Diplomacy. Harmony Diplomacy Essential for World Development , Power Diplomacy Must Evolve Towards Harmony Diplomacy , Harmony Diplomacy in Work , Harmony Diplomacy: China s Commitment to World Harmony and many other related articles can be seen on Google, Yahoo search and Xinhua Net. Good global governance is the foundation for a harmonious world. To pursue world harmony is the common destiny for the human race. Good global governance must include new world political and economic order to build international democracy. We must promote global cooperation through mutual win-win development and resolve conflicts through dialogue and consultation. We must strengthen the United Nation through needed reform to discourage unilateralism and extremism. All these global undertakings can only begin when major nations of the world start practicing Harmony Diplomacy. A grand strategy of Harmony Diplomacy to build world harmony must be able to face the challenges of today s unilateralism, extremism, rich and poor disparity and ecology unsustainability. The important elements of a grand Harmony Diplomacy strategy must include dialogue and consultation, win-win mutual development, unity in diversity, tolerance and openness, equity and humility. Harmony Diplomacy must act through equal, friendly and open dialogue and consultation to achieve mutual understanding, trust and respect. This is to accomplish the greatest possible harmony consensus among nations of the world. Harmony Diplomacy is to seek commonality and minimize confrontational difference. In the desire to foster win-win common development we must take a long strategic view. The reality of the world is multi cultural and not all in sync of the path and stage of development. We must accept and tolerate different economic and political development. Old colonial mentality and big power chauvinism will never be accepted again. By forcing our culture and value on weak nations is counter productive to Harmony Diplomacy. The best governance system is a nation s own harmonious system developed fro

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Who's Watching You?: The Chilling Truth about the State, Surveillance, and Personal Freedom (Conspiracy Books) Review

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(More customer reviews)Do you find yourself hopelessly paranoid about government bureaucracies, the corporate Gestapo, eyes in the sky, or even our addiction to social networking sites? Yeah, neither did I. Who's watching you? by Mick Farren and John Gibb is a disturbing exposé about our technology driven world that will make you think twice about performing the simplest of tasks. This book covers everything from facial recognition, corporate data mining, and biomimetrics, all the way up to the potential power of Google as an A.I. entity and the already robust control of the ECHELON interception network. If the idea of simply being watched doesn't bother you because you believe in the now trite expression, "If you have nothing to hide, there's nothing to worry about," then maybe the possibility of mandatory retinal scans and virtual slave collars for all world citizens doesn't concern you either. But for the rest of us who prefer to not be herded like senseless sheep this book is definitely worth taking a look at,,, while you still can, that is.

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The threat of terrorism and the corresponding climate of fear encouraged by the government have together eroded our freedom to live our lives in peace and quiet away from the prying eyes of hidden cameras. The government is tightening its grip on us by watching and recording what we do. They are doing this because they know they can and because knowledge is power. But exactly who are "they" and why do they want to know so much about us? This book includes chilling, accurate, and up-to-date descriptions of the methods the government (and private company proxies) use to watch us.

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The Lobbying Strategy Handbook: 10 Steps to Advancing Any Cause Effectively Review

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(More customer reviews)I don't usually review books on lobbying, but that has more to do with the fact that there are few good books written on this important act of advocacy. I have been a lobbyist for a trade association for over 25 years and I would have loved to have been given a resource like Pat Libby's book when I started out in the business. Don't get me wrong, there is considerable material out there on the political process, it is just that it is not very usable to the average person interested in promoting a legislative cause or agenda.
What I like about The Lobbying Strategy Handbook is that it gives a fairly sound foundation in the basics of law making, the governmental budgeting process and lobbying. The most important part follows with a clear, "how to", ten-step advocacy campaign procedure, with some real life case studies.
The author created and directs a university institute for non-profit education in California and previously ran several non-profits, lobbying for their key issues. She clearly knows what she is writing about from first hand experiences. The reader might not qualify for a degree reading this book, but they will certainly know how to develop and promote a legislative strategy.
Lobbying is not just for the "high rollers" working the corridors of power in Washington. Pat makes this whole advocacy procedure accessible to everyone, especially on the local level. And isn't that what our democratic process is really all about - giving every citizen the abilities to make changes in the way our government works.


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The Lobbying Strategy Handbook shows how students with passion for a cause can learn to successfully influence lawmaking in the United States. The centerpiece of this book is a 10-step framework that walks the reader through the essential elements of conducting a lobbying campaign. The framework is illustrated by three separate case studies that show how groups of people have successfully used the model. Undergraduate, graduate students, and anyone interested in making a difference, can use the book to guide them in creating and conducting a grassroots campaign from start to finish.

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Virtual Freedom: Net Neutrality and Free Speech in the Internet Age (Stanford Law Books) Review

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(More customer reviews)Corporations control one's window to the rest of the world. "Virtual Freedom: Net Neutrality and Free Speech in the Internet Age" discusses net neutrality and the threats to it, and why readers should care. Criticizing the recent changes that have threatened the upholding of net neutrality and how a possible repeal of it could do untold damage to America's economic and social ideals, "Virtual Freedom" is an intriguing and highly recommended read that is well worth considering for anyone concerned with the freedom of the internet.

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Communications giants like Google, Comcast, and AT&T enjoy increasingly unchecked control over speech. As providers of broadband access and Internet search engines, they can control online expression. Their online content restrictions-from obstructing e-mail to censoring cablecasts-are considered legal because of recent changes in free speech law.In this book, Dawn Nunziato criticizes recent changes in free speech law in which only the government need refrain from censoring speech, while companies are permitted to self-regulate. By enabling Internet providers to exercise control over content, the Supreme Court and the FCC have failed to protect the public's right to access a broad diversity of content. Nunziato argues that regulation is necessary to ensure the free flow of information and to render the First Amendment meaningful in the twenty-first century. This book offers an urgent call to action, recommending immediate steps to preserve our free speech rights online.

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Yes We Did An inside look at how social media built the Obama brand Review

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(More customer reviews)I can't believe that I paid money for this book. I'm strongly considering finding Ms. Harfoush's PO Box, returning this book to author, and seeking a refund. Or sending her a copy of Lester Wunderman's Being Direct.
I think I should preface my comments by saying that I work in the online marketing industry, was impressed by the Obama campaign, and was looking forward to an interesting read highlighting the strategy and tactics behind the revolutionary Obama campaign. I found nothing. I found abysmally little insight. The strategies did not make it past basic direct marketing. The book so completely lacks any details that it reads like a high school "How I spent my summer vacation" essay punctuated with smiley faces and hearts over the i's.
For example, take chapter 13 Analytics and Online Media, this chapter runs 6 pages. The social media section can be summarized "Obama campaign spent a lot with google, we got a 15 to 1 ROI". Though what is ROI here? Donations? Votes? Engagement? Harfoush doesn't say. The equally short analytics section mentions the "campaign embraced a philosophy of constant iteration by using the data they collected to instantly adjust and course correct". Course correct what or how, she never mentions. Results of this iteration she never mentions. Did they improve campaigns X percent? Did they find any voter insight? Did they discover that Ohioans love Nafta related content? We'll never know. To what level or detail they tracked or course corrected she never mentions. She claims that "building flexibility and agility into internal processes" could allow companies to evolve and meet consumer needs despite the fact it runs contrary to their philosophy. In fact, the clients I have worked with in online marketing appear to be vastly more sophisticated than the Obama campaign judging by the examples in this book. This chapter, an interesting and thriving field in direct marketing it even has its own cool conference graphing social patterns, is so shallow I can't imagine a High School English teacher would have found it acceptable.
Another treat, the Text Messaging and Mobile chapter includes these gems as takeaways: "Always let users opt in, Create a conversation, and Engagement to Go". Always let users opt-in, this has been an industry standard for years, and frankly in the mobile space I wouldn't be surprised if non-opt communications are illegal for SMS. It has the same problems fax marketing had 30 years ago, it costs subscribers to receive them! Of course you need to get them to opt in, you're actually going to cost them money not merely inconvenience. Create a conversation, nothing new or novel there. Engagement to Go is summed up like so "With the rise of mobile applications and smartphones, new opportunities will emerge for organizations to provide value-added services for consumers in the real world. With increasingly sophisticated devices being released in the market, mobile technology will play an important role in upcoming political elections". Wow. Incredible insight.
There are many other problems: the layout makes it hard to read, also-ran feeling to the narration, aggrandization of fundamental techniques that companies have been using for years ("The last element of hypersegmentation was donation history" she equates not emailing subscribers who can't donate any more "hypersegmenation", blech), etc. I think I'll just stop here. If you're a marketing professional or work in social media do yourself a favor, and avoid this book like the plague.

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FOREWORD by Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics and Grown Up DigitalThe Obama campaign's mastery of social media for everything from fundraising to volunteer coordination has been widely reported. Until now, there hasn't been an in-depth analysis of how they did it.In Yes We Did, new media strategist and campaign headquarters volunteer Rahaf Harfoush gives us a behind the-scenes look at the campaign's use of technology, from its earliest days through election night. She reveals strategic insights organizations can apply to their own brands. Discover how unwavering strategic vision and collaborative technologies–email, blogs, social networks, Twitter, and SMS messaging–empowered a formidable online community to help elect the world's first "digital" President.

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Open Government: Collaboration, Transparency, and Participation in Practice Review

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(More customer reviews)The most basic definition of open government is the idea that people have the right to access the documents and proceedings of government. Being able to closely examine decisions, policies, and procedures is foundational to having the ability to make intelligent and informed decisions as a citizen, especially in a democracy where an informed electorate is vital if good choices are to be made by voters when selecting leaders or holding them accountable.
The Open Government movement is not officially organized as a group or party, rather it is a growing collection of concerned citizens who want to help create better government by increasing citizens' access to information. It has been heavily influenced by the open source software movement and has similar aims: increased collaboration through making options available to any interested party willing to read and study, increased transparency by making source materials freely available for anyone to peruse and examine, and increased participation by eliminating closed systems wherever possible. While this idea was broadcast most widely in the campaign and early days of Barack Obama's presidency, this is not a one-sided political issue as much as it is an Enlightenment era system of belief, enshrined in the United States' Declaration of Independence and Constitution, now being updated for the digital era which is filled with technologies which could make those ideals more easily fulfilled.
Open Government: Collaboration, Transparency, and Participation in Practice is a collection of 34 essays written by a wide variety of people who are interested in both promoting the philosophy of open government and in suggesting practical ways to implement procedures that will assist in applying that philosophy. The range of topics covered is diverse and interesting. Included are thoughts about governmental uses of information technology that currently limit openness and specific recommendations for remedying the problems, creating a wider variety of methods for people to access government data and increasing access across society, enabling greater innovation among those not directly connected to government such as through the creation of specific APIs so that outside research may be more easily accomplished using government collected data (paid for with public funds via taxes and therefore publicly owned data). We have essays that consider new and effective ways for current government officials to communicate more easily and directly with the people who elected them, discussions of how increased openness in government could decrease the influence of monied interests in governmental policy and could replace that with a greater influence by and for the electorate. There are clear and logical presentations on topics like why using open standards for data storage matters, especially with regards to publicly owned data as collected and used by governments, as well as some great arguments for the use of open source software to make government more efficient, transparent, and flexible in a rapidly changing world.
I greatly appreciate that this book exists. I would love for a copy to end up in the hands of every member of the government as well as any interested person planning to run for an office. These are policies that would greatly benefit the original intent of the founders of the United States (of which I am a citizen and where the book was written) and would be useful in any nation willing to carefully read and consider the ideas being proffered.
If this topic is of any interest to you, and I argue that it should be, this book would benefit you in your thinking. Go find a copy and read it.

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In a world where web services can make real-time data accessible to anyone, how can the government leverage this openness to improve its operations and increase citizen participation and awareness? Through a collection of essays and case studies, leading visionaries and practitioners both inside and outside of government share their ideas on how to achieve and direct this emerging world of online collaboration, transparency, and participation.

Contributions and topics include:

Beth Simone Noveck, U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer for open government, "The Single Point of Failure"
Jerry Brito, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, "All Your Data Are Belong to Us: Liberating Government Data"
Aaron Swartz, cofounder of reddit.com, OpenLibrary.org, and BoldProgressives.org, "When Is Transparency Useful?"
Ellen S. Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, "Disrupting Washington's Golden Rule"
Carl Malamud, founder of Public.Resource.Org, "By the People"
Douglas Schuler, president of the Public Sphere Project, "Online Deliberation and Civic Intelligence"
Howard Dierking, program manager on Microsoft's MSDN and TechNet Web platform team, "Engineering Good Government"
Matthew Burton, Web entrepreneur and former intelligence analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency, "A Peace Corps for Programmers"
Gary D. Bass and Sean Moulton, OMB Watch, "Bringing the Web 2.0 Revolution to Government"
Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, "Defining Government 2.0: Lessons Learned from the Success of Computer Platforms"

Open Government editors:

Daniel Lathrop is a former investigative projects reporter with the Seattle Post Intelligencer who's covered politics in Washington state, Iowa, Florida, and Washington D.C. He's a specialist in campaign finance and "computer-assisted reporting" -- the practice of using data analysis to report the news. Laurel Ruma is the Gov 2.0 Evangelist at O'Reilly Media. She is also co-chair for the Gov 2.0 Expo.

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Media/Society: Industries, Images, and Audiences Review

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(More customer reviews)Media-disseminated messages flood our every waking second, affecting us in ways we often do not readily discern. Croteau and Hoynes take the reader on an exploration of these media forces in a sociological journey that walks then leaps from the birth of printed words for the masses to cyberspace for the individual. In the process, we learn a lot along the way. Not only about media, but, about ourselves. Unlike most college course texts in Media and Society (in sociology or journalism), "Media Society" is written in understandable English and is not ruefully Marxian in ideological slant. The work plays it straight down the middle. The authors' goal, to which they succeed, is to provide information that shows the complexity of social relationships in, around and through which information from all sources is sought and internalized by "receivers" then, through feedback, subtly affects the "senders" and subsequent messages as well.Surprisingly up-to-date in information, especially concerning the so-called New Media (a synthesis of current technologies, traditional entertainment programs-turned-political,and old news media).Croteau and Hoynes not only introduce the reader to the media mileau in society, they show how economics drive news coverage. At the same time they explain that media consolidations have not shrunk the markets as first feared, but have actually led--perhaps inadvertently--to an explosion of different, often smaller and more intimate media. The media pie, they attest, is growing bigger as the number of slices inexplicably increase.In later chapters, the authors do a commendable job acquainting the reader with communications theory, especially explaining how opinions are formed.My favorite chapter, given my predilections, are the chapters dealing with media and the political world (and the rest of the chapters in Part 4). The authors also enter the globalization fray by demonstrating not only how American pop culture is transforming traditional cultures (see Barber's McWorld v. Jihad for greater detail), but also how traditional cultures are influencing American pop culture in ways greater than we had intuited.Anyone interested in gaining a sense of how media is impacting his or her daily life and how we, as social beings, react to that impact, should certainly read this wonderful book.

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Media/Society: Industries, Images, and Audiences provides a framework to help students understand the relationship between media and society and helps students develop skills for critically evaluating both conventional wisdom and one's own assumptions about the social role of the media.

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Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making Review

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(More customer reviews)I grew up in the 1970's studying multinational corporations and inter-locking directorates, reading Richard Barnett's Global Reach, and so on. I am also familiar with the $60,000 a year special database that charts the top dogs and every membership, association, investment, etc.
The two major deficiencies in this book that left me disappointed are:
1. Does not name names nor show network diagrams such as you can pull from Silobreaker.com (Factiva is not even close).
2. Shows no appreciation for past research and findings. This is a current overview, closer to journalism than to authorship or research.
The book earns four stars instead of three for two reasons:
1. There is a very subtle but crystal-clear sense of goodness, ethics, and "good intention" or "right thinking" by the author. As diplomatic as he might be, he clearly sees the insanity of Exxon refusing to think about anything other than maximizing petroleum while externalizing $12 in costs for every $3.50 gallon that they sell--they did NOT "earn" $40 billion in profit this past year--they essentially stole it from the population at large and future generations).
2. Each chapter has a serious point or series of points, and I especially liked the author's constant presentation of tangible numbers on virtually every page.
Having said all that, I will list two books below that I found more interesting than this one, and then list a few notes that made it to my flyleafs.
Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich
All the Money in the World: How the Forbes 400 Make--and Spend--Their Fortunes
Notes from the book:
6,000 top people (in total of 6 billion, I think that's .0001--the author, who's no doubt better at math, says each is 1 in a million)
Top 1,000 rich own as much or earn as much as the bottom 2.5 billion poor.
Early on he says he decided not to do a list because it changes. I believe him, but I was truly disappointed to not find a lot of meat in this book--it has facts, anecdotes, a story line, but one does not get the "feeling in the fingertips" or the raw feel.
Early on he reviews and dismisses conspiracy theories, and returns to this in the final chapter where he reviews the Masons, Bohemian Grove, Skull and Bones, all in a cursory manner (for example, there is no table, a single page would do, of top Skull and Bones power figures today).
Power is shifting away from Nations. This is true. The author focuses on those who have money and live globally. He is not focusing on those who control their own spending, global assemblages. For that see
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs
Global Assemblages: Technology, Politics, and Ethics as Anthropological Problems
Human interactions are the glue connects the superclass members--corridor meetings that take place on the periphery of "big events" where the important stuff is not the event, but the encounters--Davos, World Cup, Grand Prix, Allen & Co, Geneva Auto Show, Winter Olympics, the Chinese meeting on Hainan Island (the Boao Forum).
Corporate/Finance the top of the barrel, 2000 top organizations control $103 trillion in assets, do $27 trillion in annual sales.
Access/time is the most precious asset, one reason the Gulf Stream is really a solid indicator of top of the top--it provides time saved, mobility, flexibility, privacy, security, work en route, sleep well, etc.
The author tells us he is focusing on influence, not just wealth or accomplishments, but very candidly, while the book is coherent and there is nothing wrong with its facts or sequence of observations, one simply does not come away with a clear picture. This is like a verbal description of a trip around the world, which it is, but without the photos, smells, tastes, etc. It also avoids any substantive (as opposed to discreetly moral "in passing" commentary) attention to costs and consequences--a balance sheet showing choices being made (e.g. by Exxon) and who benefits, who loses, would no doubt terminate this author's welcome on the fringes of the super-elite as it would be devastatingly negative.
20-50 people control any given sector, worldwide
In the book the author seeks to discuss six central issues:
1. Nature of the superclass power
2. Link if any (ha ha) between concentrated wealth and the five billion at the bottom of the pyramid
3. Whether the superclass calls into question the sufficiency of our global legal and governance institutions
4. Whether the division in interests between the rich and the poor will be the central conflict of our time
5. Would we choose this superclass?
6. How is the superclass evolving
General conclusions:
Markets not working fully, need some non-market "controlling authority"
Elites are not taking responsibility for the poor in their own countries
Meritocracy is no longer--same merit, one becomes a billionaire from connections, the other a mere millionaire
Private equity is where its at in terms of starting salaries in the $300,000 range.
Globalists versus nationalist
Anti-globalists include leaders of Iran, Russia, and Venezuela
Tottering institutions--International Monetary Fund may not be funded by countries much longer
Global military-to-military relations work, political-diplomatic do not, and the money is mis-spent (billions here and there, and no money for spare parts to keep air forces flying, much cheaper good will spending)
Criminal elite a part of this (read Moises Naim's book Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers, and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy
USA has a power vacuum in that both the President and Congress have taken power that is not theirs and abused it, but the US voter has ceded power by failing to understand and deliberate on the issues.
He surprises me by bing familiar with General Smedley Butler's book, War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier
Two coolest sentences in the book for me:
"Most dangerous mind-altering substance on earth is oil."
"Cost is simply not caring." (Corporations that enrich dictators while ignoring the billions whose commonwealth is being stolen). For more on this evil and how the USA supports 42 of 44 dictators, see Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2025
There is nothing in this book, published in 2008, on Sovereign Wealth Funds, nor does the author focus on dictators and "royalty" as part of the superclass. As Lawrence Lessig has noted, end corruption, end scarcity, begin a true harvesting of the common wealth for the common good. Right now we are all where "Animal Farm" put us--fodder for the wealthy.
The publisher's choice of ink colors for the jacket flaps and rear cover is terrible, those portions of the book are difficult to read.
The book is over-sold: "draws back the curtain on a privileged society." Not really. This is a solid book of facts that is as close to bland and generic and inoffensive as one can get--but then, that was probably the author's intent since he wants to be able to see these people again.....
See also
The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future - and What It Will Take to Win It Back
For a direct opposite of this book, seek out books on Collective Intelligence, Wisdom Councils, World Cafe, Social Entrepreneurship, All Rise, Power Governments Cannot Suppress, and so on. We live in interesting times.


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