It’s very cool to be living in a long tail world like we do today.
Yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to get an email from Thomas Friedman’s publisher informing me that they are having a promotion where they are giving away audio copies of “The World Is Flat” to generate some buzz around his new book out in September on environmental issues called Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America
For a publisher to find a guy with a small blog, who enjoyed an author’s previous work, to help in promoting awareness of a subsequent title is pretty cool. Even if I am a bit starstruck, that’s a 21st centry approach that not all businesses grok quite yet.
UPDATE 8/4:
The promotion has been extended to August 11.
Nerd Guru 
August 2, 2008 at 2:15 pm |
Thanks for the heads-up, Pete. I’m looking forward to getting to read/hear the book and appreciate the link. I really enjoy your book reports (I’m a slow/unfocused reader, alas. Reading your posts is like getting Cliff Notes for me) and think that that’s how I found you first, as well. Never underestimate what content will bring contacts in to you. Pretty cool, all in all.
August 5, 2008 at 2:42 am |
This would be a good time to also read a small but interesting book, by Aronica and Ramdoo, “The World is Flat? A Critical Analysis of Thomas Friedman’s New York Times Bestseller,” which offers a counterperspective to Friedman’s book. It is a small book compared to the 600 page tome by Friedman, and aimed at the common man and students alike. As popular as the book may be, some reviewers assert that by what it leaves out, Friedman’s book is dangerous. The authors point to the fact that there isn’t a single table or data footnote in Friedman’s entire book.
“Globalization is the greatest reorganization of the world since the Industrial Revolution,” says Aronica. Aronica and Ramdoo conclude by listing over twenty action items that point the way forward, and they provide a comprehensive, yet concise, framework for understanding the critical issues of globalization.
You may want to see http://www.mkpress.com/flat
and watch http://www.mkpress.com/flatoverview.html
for an interesting counterperspective on Friedman’s
“The World is Flat”.
Also a really interesting 6 min wake-up call: Shift Happens! http://www.mkpress.com/ShiftExtreme.html
There is also a companion book listed: Extreme Competition: Innovation and the Great 21st Century Business Reformation
http://www.mkpress.com/extreme
http://www.mkpress.com/Extreme11minWMV.html
August 5, 2008 at 3:27 pm |
Part of me wants to mark concerned citizen as spam, but in the interest of giving alternative opinions a fair shake I’m not going to. It strikes me a bit odd that someone would be critical of Friedman’s lack of citations using a “some reviewers” argument that itself lacks citation. That doesn’t mean it’s not a valid criticism, though.
In my 15 years with one of the world’s largest company, everything I’ve seen meshes well with The World is Flat. Friedman has more Pulitzer’s than anybody who’s ever going to comment on my blog. That doesn’t exempt him from scrutiny, but it raises the bar pretty high. I obviously loved the book or else I wouldn’t have written about it, but everyone is entitled to an opinion.
—Pete