Argonauts of the Western Pacific


Bronisław Malinowski - 1961
    His pages have become an almost indispensable link between the knowing of exotic and remote people with theoretical knowledge about humankind. This volume--originally published in 1922--can be considered the founding document of economic anthropology, and remains the best one to read. It emphasizes the great significance of primitive economics by singling out the notable exchange system of the Trobriand Islands for special consideration. Although the main theme is economic, constant reference is made in this milestone of anthropological research and interpretation to social organization, life and meaning, the power of magic, and to mythology and folklore.

The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories


Frank Rose - 2011
    Now, on YouTube and blogs and Facebook and Twitter, we are media. And while we watch more television than ever before, how we watch it is changing in ways we have barely slowed down to register. No longer content in our traditional role as couch potatoes, we approach television shows, movies, even advertising as invitations to participate—as experiences to immerse ourselves in at will. Wired contributing editor Frank Rose introduces us to the people who are reshaping media for a two-way world—people like Will Wright (The Sims), James Cameron (Avatar), Damon Lindelof (Lost), and dozens of others whose ideas are changing how we play, how we chill, and even how we think. The Art of Immersion is an eye-opening look at the shifting shape of entertainment today.

Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal


Nick Bilton - 2013
    In barely six years, a small group of young, ambitious programmers in Silicon Valley built an $11.5 billion business out of the ashes of a failed podcasting company. Today Twitter boasts more than 200 million active users and has affected business, politics, media, and other fields in innumerable ways. Now Nick Bilton of the New York Times takes readers behind the scenes with a narrative that shows what happened inside Twitter as it grew at exponential speeds. This is a tale of betrayed friendships and high-stakes power struggles as the four founders—Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, and Noah Glass—went from everyday engineers to wealthy celebrities, featured on magazine covers, Oprah, The Daily Show, and Time’s list of the world’s most influential people. Bilton’s exclusive access and exhaustive investigative reporting—drawing on hundreds of sources, documents, and internal e-mails—have enabled him to write an intimate portrait of fame, influence, and power. He also captures the zeitgeist and global influence of Twitter, which has been used to help overthrow governments in the Middle East and disrupt the very fabric of the way people communicate.

The Human Factor: Revolutionizing the Way People Live with Technology


Kim J. Vicente - 2003
    He investigates every level of human activity - from simple matters such as our hand-eye coordination to complex human systems such as government regulatory agencies, and why businesses would benefit from making consumer goods easier to use. He shows us why we all have a vital stake in reforming the aviation industry, the health industry, and the way we live day-to-day with technology.

Don't Be Evil: How Big Tech Betrayed Its Founding Principles -- and All of Us


Rana Foroohar - 2019
    Today, the utopia they sought to create is looking more dystopian than ever: from digital surveillance and the loss of privacy to the spreading of misinformation and hate speech to predatory algorithms targeting the weak and vulnerable to products that have been engineered to manipulate our desires. How did we get here? How did these once-scrappy and idealistic enterprises become rapacious monopolies with the power to corrupt our elections, co-opt all our data, and control the largest single chunk of corporate wealth—while evading all semblance of regulation and taxes?  In Don’t Be Evil, Financial Times global business columnist Rana Foroohar tells the story of how Big Tech lost its soul—and ate our lunch. Through her skilled reporting and unparalleled access—won through nearly thirty years covering business and technology—she shows the true extent to which behemoths like Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon are monetizing both our data and our attention, without us seeing a penny of those exorbitant profits. Finally, Foroohar lays out a plan for how we can resist, by creating a framework that fosters innovation while also protecting us from the dark side of digital technology.Praise for Don’t Be Evil “At first sight, Don’t Be Evil looks like it’s doing for Google what muckraking journalist Ida Tarbell did for Standard Oil over a century ago. But this whip-smart, highly readable book’s scope turns out to be much broader. Worried about the monopolistic tendencies of big tech? The addictive apps on your iPhone? The role Facebook played in Donald Trump’s election? Foroohar will leave you even more worried, but a lot better informed.”—Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford, and author of The Square and the Tower

Writing for the Soul: Instruction and Advice from an Extraordinary Writing Life


Jerry B. Jenkins - 2006
    From learning the fundamental lessons of the writing world, to breaking in with small (even non-paying markets), this book walks readers through the skills and abilities required to build a writing career.

Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars


William Patry - 2009
    In Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars, William Patry lays bare how we got to where we are: a bloated, punitive legal regime that has strayed far from its modest, but important roots. Patry demonstrates how copyright is a utilitarian government program--not a property or moral right. As a government program, copyright must be regulated and held accountable to ensure it is serving its public purpose. Just as Wall Street must serve Main Street, neither can copyright be left to a Reaganite magic of the market. The way we have come to talk about copyright--metaphoric language demonizing everyone involved--has led to bad business and bad policy decisions. Unless we recognize that the debates over copyright are debates over business models, we will never be able to make the correct business and policy decisions. A centrist and believer in appropriately balanced copyright laws, Patry concludes that calls for strong copyright laws, just like calls for weak copyright laws, miss the point entirely: the only laws we need are effective laws, laws that further the purpose of encouraging the creation of new works and learning. Our current regime, unfortunately, creates too many bad incentives, leading to bad conduct. Just as President Obama has called for re-tooling and re-imagining the auto industry, Patry calls for a remaking of our copyright laws so that they may once again be respected.

Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems


Steve Krug - 2009
    But with a typical price tag of $5,000 to $10,000 for a usability consultant to conduct each round of tests, it rarely happens. In this how-to companion to Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, Steve Krug spells out an approach to usability testing that anyone can easily apply to their own web site, application, or other product. (As he said in Don't Make Me Think, "It's not rocket surgery".)In this new book, Steve explains how to: -Test any design, from a sketch on a napkin to a fully-functioning web site or application-Keep your focus on finding the most important problems (because no one has the time or resources to fix them all)-Fix the problems that you find, using his "The least you can do" approachBy pairing the process of testing and fixing products down to its essentials (A morning a month, that's all we ask ), Rocket Surgery makes it realistic for teams to test early and often, catching problems while it's still easy to fix them. Rocket Surgery Made Easy adds demonstration videos to the proven mix of clear writing, before-and-after examples, witty illustrations, and practical advice that made Don't Make Me Think so popular.

Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time


Joel Comm - 2009
    Since 2006, forward-thinking companies like Apple, JetBlue, Whole Foods, and GM have discovered the instant benefits of leveraging the social media phenomenon known as Twitter to reach consumers directly, build their brand, and increase sales. Twitter is at the leading edge of the social media movement, allowing members to connect with one another in real time via short text messages?called "tweets"?that can be received either via the Twitter site or by e-mail, instant messenger, or cell phone. Many companies have started building entire teams within their organization dedicated solely to responding to tweets from consumers about their brand. And this is just the beginning.In Twitter Power, Internet marketing and Web innovation expert Joel Comm shows businesses and marketers how to integrate Twitter into their existing marketing strategies to build a loyal following among Twitter members, expand awareness for their product or service, and even handle negative publicity due to angry or disappointed consumers. The book also presents case studies of companies on the forefront of the Twitter movement, to help you develop your own social networking strategies. Twitter Power is the result of extensive testing and participation in the social networking community and is a must-have for any business that wants to keep up with the social media movement. Twitter Power features a foreword by Tony Robbins.

The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach More People, and Sell More Stuff: Tap Online Social Networks to Build ... Reach More People, and Sell More Stuff


Clara Shih - 2009
    This book recognizes that we’ve come to a place where people can represent their real identity—both personal and professional—and use the social filters on the Web to connect with the world around them.” —Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, Facebook “...A must-read for CEOs and other executives who want to understand Facebook and more importantly take the right actions to stay relevant and stay competitive.” —David Mather, President, Hoovers, Inc. The ‘90s were about the World Wide Web of information and the power of linking web pages. Today it’s about the World Wide Web of people and the power of the social graph. Online social networks are fundamentally changing the way we live, work, and interact. They offer businesses immense opportunities to transform customer relationships for profit: opportunities that touch virtually every business function, from sales and marketing to recruiting, collaboration to executive decision-making, product development to innovation. In The Facebook Era, Clara Shih systematically outlines the business promise of social networking and shows how to transform that promise into reality. Shih is singularly qualified to write this book: One of the world’s top business social networking thought leaders and practitioners, she created the first business application on Facebook and leads salesforce.com’s partnershipwith Facebook. Through case studies, examples, and a practical how-to guide, Shih helps individuals, companies, and organizations understand and take advantage of social networks to transform customer relationships for sales and marketing. Shih systematically identifies your best opportunities to use social networks to source new business opportunities, target marketing messages, find the best employees, and engage customers as true partners throughout the innovation cycle. Finally, she presents a detailed action plan for positioning your company to win in today’s radically new era: The Facebook Era. Join the conversation—www.thefacebookera.com. Fan the book—www.facebook.com/thefacebookera. Right this minute, more than 1.5 million people are on Facebook. They’re interacting with friends—and talking about your brands. They’re learning about your business—and providing valuable information you can use to market and sell. In the Facebook Era, you’re closer to your customers than ever before. Read this book, and then go get them! Clara Shih offers best practices for overcoming obstacles to success, ranging from privacy and security issues to brand misrepresentation, and previews social networking trends that are just beginning to emerge—helping you get ahead of the curve and ahead of the competition, too.  Includes a practical 60-day action plan for positioning your company to win in the Facebook Era For companies of all sizes, in all industries—and business functions ranging from marketing to operations By Clara Shih, creator of Faceconnector, the first business application on Facebook Learn how to… Understand how social networking transforms our personal and professional relationshipsWhy social networking will have business impact comparable to the Internet Use online social networks to hypertarget your customersHone in on precise audience segments and then tailor custom campaigns with powerful personal and social relevance Define and implement your optimal social networking brand strategyAsk the right questions, set the right goals and priorities, and execute on it Implement effective governance and complianceUnderstand and mitigate the risks of social networking/Web 2.0 initiatives

Infinite Loop: How Apple, the World's Most Insanely Great Computer Company, Went Insane


Michael S. Malone - 1999
    How did Apple lose its way? Why did the world still care so deeply about a company that had lost its leadership position? Michael S. Malone, from the unique vantage point of having grown up with the company's founders, and having covered Apple and Silicon Valley for years, sets out to tell the gripping behind-the-scenes story - a story that is even zanier than the business world thought. In essence, Malone claims, with only a couple of incredible inventions (the Apple II and Macintosh), and backed by an arrogance matched only by its corporate ineptitude, Apple managed to create a multibillion-dollar house of cards. And, like a faulty program repeating itself in an infinite loop, Apple could never learn from its mistakes. The miracle was not that Apple went into free fall, but that it held up for so long. Within the pages of Infinite Loop, we discover a bruising portrait of the megalomaniacal Steve Jobs and an incompetent John Sculley, as well as the kind of political backstabbings, stupid mistakes, and overweening egos more typical of a soap opera than a corporate history.

No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram


Sarah Frier - 2020
    Since its creation in 2010, Instagram’s fun and simple interface has captured our collective imagination, swiftly becoming a way of life. In No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram, technology reporter Sarah Frier explains how Instagram’s founders married art and technology to overcome skeptics and to hook the public on visual storytelling. At first, Instagram initially attracted artisans, but then the platform exploded in popularity among the masses, creating an entire industry of digital influencers that’s now worth tens of billions of dollars. Eighteen months after Instagram’s launch and explosive growth, the founders—Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger—made the gut-wrenching decision to sell the company to Facebook. For most companies, that would be the end of the story; but for Instagram, it was only the beginning. Instagram borrowed some lessons from Facebook and rejected others, until eventually its success stirred tension with Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, just as Facebook became embroiled in a string of public crises. Frier unearths the details that led to the cofounders’ departure, bringing to light dramatic moments unknown to the public until now. At its heart, No Filter draws on unprecedented exclusive access—from the founders of Instagram, as well as employees, executives, and competitors; hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio; Anna Wintour of Vogue; Kris Jenner of the Kardashian-Jenner empire; and a plethora of influencers, from fashionistas with millions of followers to owners of famous dogs worldwide—to show how Instagram has fundamentally changed the way we communicate, shop, eat, and travel. The book brings readers inside users’ strategies to craft their personal image and fame, explaining how the company’s product decisions have affected the structure of our society. From teenagers to the pope, No Filter tells the captivating story of how Instagram not only created a new industry but also changed our lives.

Nerds 2.0.1


Stephen Segaller - 1998
    By building a network of computers, he believed the government could avoid buying so many new ones for academic research. From these modest Cold War beginnings a global networking industry has flourished, creating virtual communities, online shopping, the ubiquitous e-mail, and immense fortunes. Stephen Segaller's timely book draws on interviews with more than seventy of the pioneers who have used their technological genius and business skills to make incompatible systems work together, to make networking user-friendly, and to create a new global communications medium that rivals the telephone system or television in its scope and reach.Nerds 2.0.1 tells the dramatic, often comical story of how the world's computers have come to be wired together over the last thirty years. This paperback reprint contains new material to update the picture of this still-evolving saga.

We Think: The Power Of Mass Creativity


Charles W. Leadbeater - 2009
    Society is no longer based on mass consumption but on mass participation. New forms of collaboration — such as Wikipedia, Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube — are paving the way for an age in which people want to be players, rather than mere spectators, in the production process. We-Think explains how the rise of mass collaboration will affect us and the world in which we live.

Digital Marketing Analytics: Making Sense of Consumer Data in a Digital World


Chuck Hemann - 2013
    Do It Now! Why hasn't all that data delivered a whopping competitive advantage? Because you've barely begun to use it, that's why! Good news: neither have your competitors. It's hard! But digital marketing analytics is 100% doable, it offers colossal opportunities, and all of the data is accessible to you. Chuck Hemann and Ken Burbary will help you chop the problem down to size, solve every piece of the puzzle, and integrate a virtually frictionless system for moving from data to decision, action to results! Scope it out, pick your tools, learn to listen, get the metrics right, and then distill your digital data for maximum value for everything from R&D to CRM to social media marketing! - Prioritize--because you can't measure, listen to, and analyze everything - Use analysis to craft experiences that profoundly reflect each customer's needs, expectations, and behaviors - Measure real social media ROI: sales, leads, and customer satisfaction - Track the performance of all paid, earned, and owned social media channels - Leverage "listening data" way beyond PR and marketing: for strategic planning, product development, and HR - Start optimizing web and social content in real time - Implement advanced tools, processes, and algorithms for accurately measuring influence - Integrate paid and social data to drive more value from both - Make the most of surveys, focus groups, and offline research synergies - Focus new marketing and social media investments where they'll deliver the most value Foreword by Scott Monty Global Head of Social Media, Ford Motor Company