1989년 <마이크로즘(Microsm)>이란 저서에서 부와 권력의 원천이 토지와 물질자원이 아니라 아이디어와 기술에 있다며 정보지식 사회의 도래를 선언했던 미국 IT 전문가 조지 길더. 미래를 내다보는 혜안으로 세상을 깜짝 놀라게 했던 그가 이번에는 <텔레코즘>을 들고 나왔다. "컴퓨터 시대는 끝났다. 이제는 텔레코즘의 시대다."
1992년 포브스 ASAP의 머리기사로 세상에 처음 등장한 '텔레코즘'이란 용어가 의미하는 핵심은 "개개의 컴퓨터 속에 있는 CPU의 성능보다, 컴퓨터들이 연결되었을 때 발생하는 힘이 더 중요하다."는 데 있다. 이 책은 텔레코즘 세상에 대한 비전과 이후 10년 동안 전개된 테크놀로지의 발전사를 집대성한 저작물이다.
제한적인 통신속도를 넘어서는 엄청난 양의 광학기술과 무선인터넷 기술의 발전, 대역폭의 체증을 극복하고, 자유롭게 모든 개인들이 네트워크 세상에서 자신의 재능과 정보를 주고받을 수 있는 세상이 곧 열린다고 저자는 말한다. 그리고 그의 시선은 한국으로 향해있다. 국토의 4분의 3이 광대역 통신망으로 연결되어 있는 나라, "한국이여, 기회를 움켜쥐어라"고 그는 말한다.
저자소개
1939년 뉴욕에서 태어나 하버드대학 정치학과를 졸업했다. 그는 기업인들과 주식투자자를 대상으로 하는 'Gilder Technology Report'의 발행인이며, '포브스 ASAP'의 발기인, 'Economist', 'Wired Magazine', 'Wall Street Journal' 의 주요 기고자이다. 닉슨 대통령의 연설문 작성자로 사회에 첫발을 내디딘 그는, 레이건 행정부의 감세 정책에 결정적 영향을 끼친 <부와 빈곤 Wealth and Poverty>의 출간을 통해 세상에 이름을 알린다. 사회 정치 분야의 책을 저술하던 그가 신기술의 영역으로 관심을 돌리게 된 것은 놀랍게도 마흔 이후의 일이다. 늦깎이 공학도 길더가 찾아간 곳은 캘리포니아 공대 카버 미드 교수의 미소전자학 연구실이었다. 과학 분야의 문외한이던 길더는 이때부터 물리학과 미적분의 기초를 다지며 미시세계의 영역으로 들어간다. 저서로는 대표작인 <마이크로코즘> 외에 <텔레비전 이후의 생활>, <부와 빈곤> 등 12권의 책이 있다.
Many people have a point of view about how the telecommunications technology and industry will evolve, but few fully understand the principles and assumptions behind their own perspective. Telecosm is a valuable summary of the science, engineering, and most influential companies that have been leading the changes in telecommunications potential. Those who have an advanced understanding of the science can skip those sections (Part One) and still have an enjoyable read. Those who want to know the human side of the engineering will find many rewarding stories (Part Two).
The only people who will be disappointed will be those looking at his thoughts about investments (Part Four and Appendix B). First, it takes too long to bring out a book for the investment ideas to be any good by the time they appear. The market will have moved on. Second, this book is not enough in the futurist mode for us to find the important seedlings that will dominate the future. The companies discussed favorably in this book are visible and understood by most high technology investors already. Third, these ideas have been discussed for many years by Mr. Gilder in a variety of formats so they will only surprise people who are not familiar already with Mr. Gilder's nearly-ubiquitous prognostications.
Mr. Gilder has several strengths as a technology guru that are evident in Telecosm. First, he writes clearly, simply, and beautifully. No one else does it as well in this field. Second, he knows a lot of the people involved and can unveil the personalities and intellectual history in an engaging way, as a result. Third, he is a systems thinker, so he is adept at connecting one development to another in explaining his reasoning about why one thing or another has or will happen. In doing this, he pays his reader the compliment of leaving the reader with enough information to develop her or his own opinion on the same subject. Fourth, he comes at the information from several perspectives, and that makes it more accessible. Well done!
No book is without flaws, and it may help you to know what some of the ones are in this book. First, he fails to follow the line of his technology arguments into related fields. For example, he makes a great case for universal wireless devices of all types in constant use, but doesn't go very far in talking about what some of the enabling technologies are. For example, analog chips are very important in extending the battery life of these devices, which bodes well for those who make those chips. Second, he tells you about a trend and doesn't talk about who the players are. For example, one of his 20 Laws (see Appendix A) is the Yellow Pages Law: 'The telecosm demands better and better directories . . . .' Yet he doesn't talk about the efforts to develop those directories. This should be one of biggest areas of developing value in the next ten years, yet it gets little attention in the text. Third, he seems a little overfocused on the telecommunications technology side of the telecommunications revolution. You get very little about the implications for mass storage technologies. With infinite virtually free bandwidth, companies can assemble far more data and put it into more useful forms than ever before. What are the key principles for making this new direction work? His customized information and advertising arguments are pretty simple and incomplete. Fourth, he seems to be dead wrong in at least a few places. For example, he says that television cannot survive. If we are carrying around portable devices that little screens, I have a hard time imagining that they will have the same emotional impact on us as the larger television screens. Also, there is a parallel development built on fiber optics for television-based connectivity that receives very little attention here.
Perhaps the biggest gap here is in addressing what the company should do with its Internet presence who will benefit from and be affected by these technologies. For help in those areas,I suggest you read The Last Mile, From .com to .profit, and Community Building on the Web.
After you are done with this book, ask yourself what key assumptions Gilder is making that could be totally wrong about an area of supreme importance for the future of your work. Then imagine how you can develop a business or organizational strategy that would allow you to outperform your competitors whether or not Gilder is right in those areas. Then ask yourself what he did not address that could be important to you, find out what assumptions are being made in those areas and again find a strategy robust enough to allow you to outperform despite your inability to forecast. That's the real payoff from a book such as this one.
1989년 <마이크로즘(Microsm)>이란 저서에서 부와 권력의 원천이 토지와 물질자원이 아니라 아이디어와 기술에 있다며 정보지식 사회의 도래를 선언했던 미국 IT 전문가 조지 길더. 미래를 내다보는 혜안으로 세상을 깜짝 놀라게 했던 그가 이번에는 <텔레코즘>을 들고 나왔다. "컴퓨터 시대는 끝났다. 이제는 텔레코즘의 시대다."
1992년 포브스 ASAP의 머리기사로 세상에 처음 등장한 '텔레코즘'이란 용어가 의미하는 핵심은 "개개의 컴퓨터 속에 있는 CPU의 성능보다, 컴퓨터들이 연결되었을 때 발생하는 힘이 더 중요하다."는 데 있다. 이 책은 텔레코즘 세상에 대한 비전과 이후 10년 동안 전개된 테크놀로지의 발전사를 집대성한 저작물이다.
제한적인 통신속도를 넘어서는 엄청난 양의 광학기술과 무선인터넷 기술의 발전, 대역폭의 체증을 극복하고, 자유롭게 모든 개인들이 네트워크 세상에서 자신의 재능과 정보를 주고받을 수 있는 세상이 곧 열린다고 저자는 말한다. 그리고 그의 시선은 한국으로 향해있다. 국토의 4분의 3이 광대역 통신망으로 연결되어 있는 나라, "한국이여, 기회를 움켜쥐어라"고 그는 말한다.
저자소개
1939년 뉴욕에서 태어나 하버드대학 정치학과를 졸업했다. 그는 기업인들과 주식투자자를 대상으로 하는 'Gilder Technology Report'의 발행인이며, '포브스 ASAP'의 발기인, 'Economist', 'Wired Magazine', 'Wall Street Journal' 의 주요 기고자이다. 닉슨 대통령의 연설문 작성자로 사회에 첫발을 내디딘 그는, 레이건 행정부의 감세 정책에 결정적 영향을 끼친 <부와 빈곤 Wealth and Poverty>의 출간을 통해 세상에 이름을 알린다. 사회 정치 분야의 책을 저술하던 그가 신기술의 영역으로 관심을 돌리게 된 것은 놀랍게도 마흔 이후의 일이다. 늦깎이 공학도 길더가 찾아간 곳은 캘리포니아 공대 카버 미드 교수의 미소전자학 연구실이었다. 과학 분야의 문외한이던 길더는 이때부터 물리학과 미적분의 기초를 다지며 미시세계의 영역으로 들어간다. 저서로는 대표작인 <마이크로코즘> 외에 <텔레비전 이후의 생활>, <부와 빈곤> 등 12권의 책이 있다.
(TOP 10 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE)
The only people who will be disappointed will be those looking at his thoughts about investments (Part Four and Appendix B). First, it takes too long to bring out a book for the investment ideas to be any good by the time they appear. The market will have moved on. Second, this book is not enough in the futurist mode for us to find the important seedlings that will dominate the future. The companies discussed favorably in this book are visible and understood by most high technology investors already. Third, these ideas have been discussed for many years by Mr. Gilder in a variety of formats so they will only surprise people who are not familiar already with Mr. Gilder's nearly-ubiquitous prognostications.
Mr. Gilder has several strengths as a technology guru that are evident in Telecosm. First, he writes clearly, simply, and beautifully. No one else does it as well in this field. Second, he knows a lot of the people involved and can unveil the personalities and intellectual history in an engaging way, as a result. Third, he is a systems thinker, so he is adept at connecting one development to another in explaining his reasoning about why one thing or another has or will happen. In doing this, he pays his reader the compliment of leaving the reader with enough information to develop her or his own opinion on the same subject. Fourth, he comes at the information from several perspectives, and that makes it more accessible. Well done!
No book is without flaws, and it may help you to know what some of the ones are in this book. First, he fails to follow the line of his technology arguments into related fields. For example, he makes a great case for universal wireless devices of all types in constant use, but doesn't go very far in talking about what some of the enabling technologies are. For example, analog chips are very important in extending the battery life of these devices, which bodes well for those who make those chips. Second, he tells you about a trend and doesn't talk about who the players are. For example, one of his 20 Laws (see Appendix A) is the Yellow Pages Law: 'The telecosm demands better and better directories . . . .' Yet he doesn't talk about the efforts to develop those directories. This should be one of biggest areas of developing value in the next ten years, yet it gets little attention in the text. Third, he seems a little overfocused on the telecommunications technology side of the telecommunications revolution. You get very little about the implications for mass storage technologies. With infinite virtually free bandwidth, companies can assemble far more data and put it into more useful forms than ever before. What are the key principles for making this new direction work? His customized information and advertising arguments are pretty simple and incomplete. Fourth, he seems to be dead wrong in at least a few places. For example, he says that television cannot survive. If we are carrying around portable devices that little screens, I have a hard time imagining that they will have the same emotional impact on us as the larger television screens. Also, there is a parallel development built on fiber optics for television-based connectivity that receives very little attention here.
Perhaps the biggest gap here is in addressing what the company should do with its Internet presence who will benefit from and be affected by these technologies. For help in those areas,I suggest you read The Last Mile, From .com to .profit, and Community Building on the Web.
After you are done with this book, ask yourself what key assumptions Gilder is making that could be totally wrong about an area of supreme importance for the future of your work. Then imagine how you can develop a business or organizational strategy that would allow you to outperform your competitors whether or not Gilder is right in those areas. Then ask yourself what he did not address that could be important to you, find out what assumptions are being made in those areas and again find a strategy robust enough to allow you to outperform despite your inability to forecast. That's the real payoff from a book such as this one.