All in All

There were a few general points about the book that we all agreed upon as weak aspects. We had the feeling that the book carried many of the core ideas all the way through the book. In some instances this gave the book a flow between chapters and other times it was simply repetitive and tedious. We felt as thought the book could have been more direct in it's points and possibly shed about thirty pages. There was a definite tone of liberal bias and a dislike for the current administration that could have tainted the subjectivity of the book. A few of the examples seemed a little off base or far fetched

But that aside...

The book presented many ideas that caught our attention in a serious way. Particularly the sections about our digital footprints. We often feel that we are free to do what we like on the internet behind some vial of anonymity, but this is certainly not the case. Companies track our every movement online. Once that information is collected the companies are free to do what they like with it (sell, use, abuse). Many people in our group are more aware of what they type in to Google now. After reading this book one can't deny the feeling of prying eyes as the search engine churns. If we want to look something up we are hesitant because we know it will affect our profile, in some computer data base.

Another point in the book was interactivity. Before we did not realize that the interactivity on the internet was so asymmetrical. Most of us thought that interactivity meant that we were just talking and discussing with other people in the internet but now we know that that is not true and that interactivity is a false idea.

We were less interested in the idea of companies using the general public in an interactive way. Such shows as American Idol are letting their consumers act as judges, marketers, and audience. This pushes many responsibilities on to the consumer through interactive response. These ideas we were all very comfortable with and carried much less weight than some more intrusive surveillance sections.

Overall we liked the book very much. It brought up many interesting ideas and he changed our mind on many things about the internet. However, there were a few aspects about the book that we did not like and thought were biased, repetative or redundant.

PS Mustafa, can Merel have her Tshirt back?