The End of Big
How the Digital Revolution Makes David the New Goliath
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
How seemingly innocuous technologies are unsettling the balance of power by putting it in the hands of the masses - and what a world without "big" will mean for all of us.
In The End of Big, social media pioneer, political and business strategist, and Harvard Kennedy School faculty member Nicco Mele offers a fascinating, sometimes frightening look at how our ability to stay connected - constantly, instantly, and globally - is dramatically changing our world.
Governments are being upended by individuals relying only on social media. Major political parties are seeing their power eroded by grassroots forces through online fund-raising. Universities are scrambling to preserve their student populations in the face of less expensive, more accessible online courses. Print and broadcast news outlets are struggling to compete with citizen journalists and bloggers. Our traditional institutions are being disrupted in revolutionary ways, some for the better. But, as Nicco Mele argues, the benefits of new technology come with unintended consequences. In The End of Big, Mele examines:
- How fringe political forces enter the mainstream and gain traction using everyday technology - with the enormous potential to undermine central power
- What happens when investigative journalism is replaced by ad hoc bloggers, mobile video, and instantaneous tweets...and whether they challenge or simply enable power
- Why Web-based micro-businesses are outcompeting major corporations, and what innovations will alter the way we work, own things, and pay for goods and services
- The collapse of traditional party politics, and the rise of a new kind of democracy, one which could produce dynamic and effective leaders...or demagogues
- How citizen initiatives can replace local and state government functions, such as safety regulations, tax collection, and garbage pickup, and do so cheaper, faster, and better
Mele argues that unless we exercise caution in our use of these new technologies, we risk a dark and wildly unstable future, one in which our freedoms and basic human values could be destroyed rather than enhanced. Both hopeful and alarming, The End of Big is a thought-provoking, passionately argued book that offers genuine insight into the ways we are using technology, and how it is radically changing our world in ways we are only now beginning to understand.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mele overstates the obvious in yet another dire warning about the promises and perils of technology, in this case the Internet, and the siren's lure of the radical connectivity it fosters. The promise of such connectivity to democratize the world and create community arises, he observes, precisely because our institutions government, media, military, entertainment have failed us in significant ways. For example, in an era of radical connectivity, when anyone with a blog can act as a journalist reporting the news, will such a blog be able to ask tough questions and hold politicians and corporations accountable? Can a blogger who offers simple reports, without taking a position on the news everyone wants to read, replace the investigative reporting of a major media source? Can radical connectivity create new political institutions that act as the major political parties did before money took hold, and encourage action for the public good? Mele concludes with the old adage that it's not the technology but the people behind it that can foster either its beneficent or malign use. He proposes several ways that we can inhabit this new world, including a "focus on making institutions more amenable and responsive to individuals" and a "demand for serious, thoughtful, informed leadership." We must also, he declares, "strengthen and reimagine local community." With lackluster prose and sweeping generalizations, though, Mele's tiresome rehearsal of long-familiar questions fails to join or advance the conversation about these matters. Lorin Rees, Rees Literary Agency.
Customer Reviews
A Bit Too Big
If you're looking for a good overview of the history of technology since the 60s this is a great book. But the problem is that it didn't have that much new to really say, so I had to give up reading the book about half way into it. This is one of those books which may have been better as a long form article.
End of big
Nicco is my cousin, he is very smart. Go out and by his book and read it